Ανοιχτή επιστολή δημοσιογράφων από την Ελλάδα προς την PEGA

Athens, 19 September 2022 Request for official check for surveillance on journalists’ phones and devices Dear PEGA Chair MEP Jeroen Lenaers, Dear PEGA Rapporteur MEP Sophie in ‘t Veld, Dear PEGA Vice-Chair MEP Sándor Ronai, Dear PEGA Vice-Chair MEP Moritz Korner, Dear PEGA Vice-Chair MEP Diana Riba I Giner, Dear PEGA Vice-Chair MEP Giorgos Georgiou, Dear MEP Juan Ignacio Zoido Álvarez, EPP PEGA Coordinator, Dear MEP Hannes Heide, S&D PEGA Coordinator, Dear MEP Roza Thun, Renew PEGA Coordinator, Dear MEP Saskia Bricmont, Greens/EFA PEGA Coordinator, Dear MEP Anne Sophie Pelletier, the Left PEGA Coordinator, Dear Members of PEGA Committee of Inquiry, We, the undersigned journalists in Greece, request that the European Parliament urgently makes available funding and facilities to check our smartphones and devices for wire tapping and any illegal or legal spyware, or that it uses the existing EU cyber security structures already available to MEPs to do so.

We firmly believe that the MEPs of the PEGA Committee and the European Parliament have an obligation to protect journalists, democracy and European values.

After the revelation of the ‘Greek Watergate’ scandal, Greek democracy is in peril and the safety of journalists and of any other critical voice is at stake.

Moreover, in these current difficult times in Greece where freedom of the press and EU Rule of Law have come under serious threat, we welcome the outstanding work of this Committee.

We thank you very much for all you are doing.

Until now there have been three PEGA Committee hearings that directly implicated specific circumstances in Greece. In the first hearing you have heard how illegal spyware like Pegasus and Predator can be bought on the black market via the ‘Dark Web’. These findings shocked the world, and it obviously drew the attention of the Committee. In the second and third hearing, you have heard the terrible accounts of investigative journalists Mr. Koukakis, Mr. Malichudis, Mrs. Triantafiliou and later from MEP Androulakis, a Greek opposition party leader, who all found out they were wire tapped and their devices were infected with illegal spyware. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. Latest revelations are that main opposition MP and shadow minister for the National Intelligence Service, Mr. Christos Spirtzis was also wiretapped and his devices infected.

One thing became very clear especially during the second hearing: the Greek government, using the Greek pro government media - which make up the majority of the Greek news outlets, enjoying the financial ‘favor’ and support of the government, whereas the Greek

independent press is in the minority, struggling to survive - tried everything since 2020 to ignore, to sweep under the rug what much later, in July this year, became the wiretapping scandal nicknamed ‘Greek Watergate’.

As long as ‘just’ journalists of the Greek independent press were ‘wiretapping victims’, the Greek Government got away wit its denials and hush-ups. Only when a journalist once employed by current Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in the Ministry of Education, Mr. Koukakis, found out was also under surveillance by the National Intelligence Service (EYP), hence wire tapped, some ‘normally’ controlled by the Greek government media paid attention. When a bit later this year Mr. Androulakis, one of your fellow MEP’s as well as a political opponent of PM Mitsotakis, also turned out to be a ‘wiretapping victim’, all that was known since a long time finally exploded mid summer and became this current ‘Greek Watergate’.

Simultaneously two journalists, who published articles that deeply upset the Greek government, became victims of horrid smear campaigns full of lies and false accusations in the Greek pro government press and on social media.

First Mr. Christides from Der Spiegel, publishing about the death of a five year old Syrian refugee girl on an Evros islet, and the responsibility of the Greek authorities for Evrospushbacks and the toddlers death. The second victim was Mr. Alexander Clapp from the New York Times, who published his opinions about how Greek PM Mitsotakis is nowadays considered a danger for all Greek democratic institutions, stressing Greece’s violation of international Human Rights and Agreements due to violent pushbacks on the Mediterranean Sea and Evros River. Both journalists followed in the painful footsteps of Dutch journalist Mrs. Beugel, whose character was ‘assassinated’ attempting to destroy her reputation on false grounds in a smear campaign that lasted many weeks after her question to the Greek - as well as the Dutch - PM in Athens on November 9th in 2021: ‘When will you stop lying about the Greek pushbacks that are overwhelmingly proven?’ Because she is a woman, the Greek smear campaign was even more vile and lasted longer. Also Mrs. Stamouli from Politico had to endure insults and humiliations, a form of ‘digital mob lynching’.

In all these cases international press organizations as well as MEP’s expressed their outrage and support.

Last but not least, as you well know, most of all the Greek journalists and one foreign correspondent mentioned above, were ‘slapped’ with court cases, their trials still pending. It is unfortunate for them that the new EU Anti-SLAPP law will only be implemented in January 2023. Seeing these developments, you, the Members of the Pegasus Committee, will understand we independent journalists now fear our devices have been infected with spyware too.

During the hearing on September 8th, Mrs Trantafiliou said something that struck us like lightning. When asked by a member of your Committee how she ‘felt’ after she discovered the wiretapping scandal of the Greek EYP - an agency which the Greek PM placed under his direct purview and responsibility by way of one of the first pieces of legislation his government voted for after the last election in 2019 - she answered: ‘I felt very alone.’

That is exactly how we feel. We, journalists in Greece, both Greek and foreign, who dare to speak Truth to Power, feel very alone.

We need and therefore ask help. With this Open Letter - and list, see below - we request in this case your help, the help, assistance and support of the PEGA Committee of Inquiry.

Not only with words, statements, hearings, for which we all thank you from the bottom of our hearts, but with concrete action and support.

As you know the Hellenic Authority for Information and Communication Security and Privacy (ADAE) has found out that currently almost 16.000 Greek citizens are being wiretapped and followed by EYP, that is by Greek PM Mitsotakis, since he is legally and politically responsible. It goes without saying that many of those must be journalists.

In this particular case, based on recent worrisome developments, we do not have confidence anymore in the Greek Parliamentary Inquiry Committee, nor can we have the luxury of blind faith in the system that is supposed to shed light on the ever growing Greek Watergate, to ‘not leave even one stone unturned’ as PM Mitsotakis has promised.

Therefore we ask you if you could make available funding and facilities - just as you discovered illegal spy ware on Mr. Androulakis’ devices - to check all the phones and devices of all the journalists who registered on the list here below.

Most of them are names from Greek independent media outlets, along with foreign correspondents, who joined forces in a very short time. More names can and will be added in the near future.

Of course we invite all journalists also of so called pro Greek government media to register if they fear they might be wiretapped as well. Naturally we do not make any distinction, this is about democratic fundamentals that concern the whole of Greece and all its journalists.

We thank you very much again.

Please bear in mind that for a long time now the world is speaking - rightly so - about the ‘Orbanisation of Greece’ under PM Mitsotakis. Just now the EU Commission at last decided to withhold 7,5 billion of EU funding to Hungary, because it violates EU Rule of Law and its democratic and human rights fundamentals. Greece is on the very same path. Please help us avoid the same outcome for Greece. One important step in the right direction would be to discover and prove with your help the scale of wire tapping of journalists in Greece.

And, yes, support from the European Parliament, so we can continue defending basic democratic values, would also make us feel less ‘alone’.

We look forward to your answer.

Faithfully yours, Greek and Foreign Journalists in Greece: