Tag: balkan insight

Greece’s Minister of State of the ruling conservative New Democracy party, Makis Voridis, on Monday admitted that he had been put under surveillance through the illegal spyware Predator.

Voridis, speaking on the Greek private TV channel ANT1, said the Hellenic Data Protection Authority had informed him that, after it investigated, it emerged that he had been put under surveillance by Predator.

The media outlet Documento had revealed that the data authority had informed three members of PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ government – among them Voridis – that they were put under surveillance by Predator, along with two other persons.

“I received a letter from the Hellenic Data Protection Authority,” said Voridis. Answering the journalists’ question about whether he would take legal action, he said: “I have nothing to do.”

“A lawsuit would only make things even more complicated in the case file. I have nothing to contribute to this,” he said.

The wiretapping scandal, which has occupied the Greek media since the spring of 2022, concerns the use of Predator by the Greek secret services, EYP, to monitor or attempt to monitor journalists, politicians, and other public figures.

The Brussels edition of Politico in a Monday report states that a proposal by the president of the Hellenic Authority for Communication Security and Privacy, ADAE, Christos Rammos, to fine the EYP 100,00 euros for concealing critical information in the wiretapping case was blocked.

According to the Politico report, shortly before midnight on September 28, the government Gazette published the appointment of new members of the ADAE. According to the media, this was done to prevent its Board of Directors from imposing a fine of 100,000 euros on the EYP.

BIRN contacted the office of the government spokesperson, Pavlos Marinakis. It insisted that the procedure was in accordance with Greek law: “The term of office of the members of ADAE had expired a year ago, and the procedure to replace the members was carried out as stipulated by the constitution”.

The president of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik. Photo: EPA-EFE/FEHIM DEMIR.

Following Milorad Dodik’s most recent attack on the N1 journalist Snezana Mitrovic, the Media Freedom Rapid Response consortium joined Bosnian media organisations in condemning the “insulting and threatening behaviour of the President of Republika Srpska.”

“We call on the politician to publicly apologise and end all intimidating practices against all media,” the Europe-wide mechanism which tracks and responds to violations of media freedom in EU Member States, Candidate Countries, and Ukraine, stated on Wednesday.

“Our organisations further warn that this aggressive rhetoric towards a member of the media, and indications of state monitoring of media, are the latest examples in a decades-long list of pressure by Dodik against journalists and independent media in the Republika Srpska,” MFRR added. 

Mitrovic, a reporter with N1 television, was attacked by Dodik at a November 16 press conference when she questioned him over ties to individuals arrested in a drug-trafficking operation. 

Dodik accused N1 of spreading falsehoods, promoting an “anti-Serb narrative,” and attempting to harm Republika Srpska, which is one of two entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He forcefully tried to take away the microphone from Mitrovic, threatening the N1 team by implying surveillance, telling them: “Do you think we don’t have a service that follows what you are doing?”

Afterwards, Dodik called Mitrovic on her private phone, berating her over N1’s coverage of the press conference.

This was not Dodik’s first outburst against media and journalists, MFRR noted.

“Unfortunately, this type of behaviour has continued with impunity for years. Dodik has repeatedly labelled critical journalists as traitors and enemies of the state, and made threats against them, including multiple verbal attacks on female journalists,” MFRR said. 

A recent mission to the country facilitated by the MFRR concluded that the antagonism shown towards critical journalists in Republika Srpska, especially by Dodik, jeopardises media freedom and fosters a sense of insecurity within the journalistic community.

The MFRR added that the claim about government surveillance of N1, and possibly other independent media in the entity, warrants a “potential investigation of utmost seriousness.”

Photo based on the work of Christopher Burns.

Southeast Europe and Hungary have seen an alarming rise in digital rights violations, particularly during periods of domestic political turbulence, elections, and regional and international upheaval, according to the latest annual report by BIRN.

The Digital Rights Violations report 2022-2023, presented in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo on Tuesday, covers Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Turkey.

Monitoring the period September 1, 2022 to August 31, 2023, BIRN registered 1,427 cases of digital rights violations, almost double the previous tally of 782.

The report reflects the complex nature of digital rights challenges in the region, highlighting the role of governments, the weakness of legislation, and the targeting of vulnerable groups.

Most violations involved hate speech, discrimination, digital manipulation, and computer fraud.

“Domestic, regional and international political developments had a direct impact on digital rights violations,” the report states. “During domestic crises and elections, digital rights violations spiked, as they did at times of regional and international tensions.”

Surge in disinformation

Individuals were among the most common victims and perpetrators, committing more than 500 violations during the monitoring period, followed by anonymous perpetrators hiding behind fake identities.

However, BIRN also registered numerous violations committed by online media, public figures, and politicians. State institutions were more often victims, sometimes of severe data breaches such as that perpetrated by a hacker group operating under the name Homeland Justice and targeting Albania’s parliament in late 2022 and early 2023.

BIRN editor Ivana Jeremic highlighted the concerning trend of gender-based violence in the digital space, citing in particular the murder in Bosnia of a woman by her husband, who live-streamed the killing on Instagram.

“Not only did the video remain online for hours, but people interacted with it, some even showing support, which was devastating for the family of the woman,” Jeremic said.

A research paper by Anes Cerkez, looking at youth-specific digital rights violations and also presented by BIRN on Tuesday, highlights a number of distressing cases, including one of cyber-bullying that led to the suicide of a 22-year-old man in Bosnia in October 2022. There were also instances of child pornography, underscoring the need for enhanced media literacy education for young people as well as their parents.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, disinformation campaigns have surged globally. Among the targets was Romania’s army, with the defence ministry warning in March this year of false posts on TikTok and Instagram about men being mobilised.

In the Serb-majority north of Kosovo, ethnically-charged incidents over the summer heightened tensions. Attacks on journalists critical of Serbia’s ruling party or the Orthodox Church increased, fuelled by violent confrontations between local Serbs and NATO-led peacekeepers.

North Macedonia witnessed continued ethnically-motivated hate speech as well as discriminatory statements targeting the LGBT community. This included hate speech spread by TV host Milenko Nedelkovski on Facebook concerning a journalist of Albanian origin.

In Montenegro, minority groups, primarily Serbs and the Serbian Orthodox Church, experienced targeted online hate speech in over half of the 26 registered cases. Bosniaks and Muslims also faced ethnic intolerance, with incidents involving the public, media outlets, and public figures amplifying discriminatory narratives.

AI ‘deep fakes’

Jeremic also highlighted the “numerous violations” following a May 2023 mass shooting at a Belgrade elementary school, when police disclosed the identity of the 13-year-old perpetrator and the personal data of his parents. There were also numerous examples of fake news following the shooting.

A new trend identified by BIRN involved the use of artificial intelligence to create ‘deep fakes’ and generate fake news. “The lack of regulation in the region leaves it to readers and platforms to deal with this kind of content,” Jeremic said.

Legislation that should protect digital rights remains inadequate in many of the countries monitored, while some government utilised new laws to target critics and independent media.

Cyber violence against women persisted due to legal gaps and data collection shortcomings.

The cases and data on them can be found in BIRN’s database, established in 2020 in partnership with the SHARE Foundation.

The research revealed that even though 96 per cent of people in Bosnia and Herzegovina have regular internet access, there is a lack of awareness about online privacy and rights among the country’s youth.

Bosnia and Herzegovina also lacks comprehensive legislation addressing online abuses and child protection, resulting in unpunished online criminal activities due to the absence of any legal definition of the internet as a public space.

Parental knowledge gaps and limited media literacy compound the challenges, as highlighted in research by Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Regulatory Agency for Communication and the UN children’s fund UNICEF. Bosnia’s Republika Srpska entity introduced a curriculum subject called ‘Digital World’ in schools in 2021, but media and information literacy remain noticeably absent from regular curricula in other parts of the country, as BIRN’s research highlighted.

Digital violence becomes commonplace

Infographic: BIRN/Igor Vujcic.

According to BIRN’s findings, young people in Bosnia and Herzegovina are active users of the internet and social media, primarily engaging in communication, entertainment activities and information-gathering. Instagram is the most popular platform, but trust in social media varies among the young people who were surveyed.

Safer Internet Centre: Supporting children online

Established in 2018, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Safer Internet Centre serves as a vital resource for children and youth seeking help and support in navigating the digital world.

Through prevention programmes, an SOS line for reporting inappropriate content, and a support line for victims of digital violence, the Centre provides crucial assistance.

The Centre’s initiatives aim to create a safe digital environment through preventive measures and timely interventions. For more information, see www.sigurnodijete.ba.

Alarmingly, one in three high school students surveyed has experienced hate speech from their peers online, and every fifth student has faced some form of discrimination by their peers. This suggests that high school students are both victims and perpetrators of digital violence, showing that relevant institutions should examine the causes of this behaviour and develop strategies to reduce or prevent it.

While the students surveyed said that social media keeps informed about local news, the research highlighted significant gaps in digital education. More than half of those surveyed said they are unaware of the concept of digital rights, while digital safety isn’t integrated into regular curricula.

Risky online behaviour and exposure to inappropriate content are widespread, and 48 per cent of parents do not monitoring their children’s online activities, the survey suggested. Previous research indicates that parents in Bosnia and Herzegovina often lack sufficient knowledge of how to ensure children’s safety online, while also lacking media and digital literacy.

Despite acknowledging the positive aspects of the internet, students know little about reporting mechanisms for harmful content. The lack of regulatory measures for online protection, coupled with inconsistent initiatives across Bosnia and Herzegovina’s various administrative units, makes curbing violations more difficult. Digital violence, once uncommon, is now a widespread issue among students.

What should be done?

Infographic: BIRN/Igor Vujcic.

BIRN’s report suggests that to address concerns about the negative impact that digital rights violations are having on young people in Bosnia and Herzegovina, collective efforts are needed.

Digital rights and safety education should be integrated into school curricula, with a focus on responsible internet use and critical evaluation of online content. Educational programmes should promote positive internet use and raise awareness about hate speech and discrimination consequences. Reporting mechanisms should be promoted among young people, and anonymous reporting channels established.

Teachers need training to effectively teach digital rights, and schools should collaborate with parent councils to raise parental awareness. Continuous monitoring of online trends and mental health support for students facing online violence is essential.

Clear legal and policy measures to combat online hate speech and discrimination, harmonised across the country’s administrative units, are necessary. Financial support for institutions like the Safer Internet Centre is crucial, along with public awareness campaigns about online safety.

The research concludes that creating a safer digital space for Bosnia and Herzegovina’s youth requires a multi-faceted approach involving educators, parents, policymakers and the wider community.

This approach should prioritise digital education, establish reporting mechanisms and foster a collective commitment to positive online behaviour as crucial steps towards a safer online environment.

The full research report can be found here.

Anes Cerkez is the author of ‘Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Youth Online: Victims and Perpetrators of Digital Rights Violations’.

Kosovo journalist Valon Syla (left) in courtroom on Ddecember 7, 2023. Photo: BIRN/Laurant Berisha

Pristina Basic Court on Thursday sentenced three defendants for the attack against a Kosovo journalist to two years of imprisonment each. The first-instance verdict can be appealed.

Lum Dervishi, Okan Hasani and Kemal Hasani were found guilty of causing light injuries to Valon Syla when they assaulted him on April 11 in Pristina’s Bregu i Diellit (Sunny Hill) neighbourhood while he was going home after participating in a TV debate.

None of the defendants was present when the judge announced the guilty verdict, which Syla welcomed. “Today, I know there is justice in this country … that protects the rights of each of us when we do not trade justice and have the patience and courage to wait for justice’s verdict,” Syla said.

“Police reacted and caught the fanatical assailants in record time and justice was rewarded with a deserved verdict,” he added. The prosecution indictment alleged that Syla’s attackers were “motivated by extreme radical Islamic ideologies”.

The court rejected Syla’s request for 30,000 euros in compensation.

Syla received medical treatment for his body injuries while his assailants fled the scene in a car. They were arrested the next day.

Speaking from Pristina hospital after receiving treatment, Syla said that he was assaulted by “three Islamic fanatics”.

Syla is CeO and Director of Kosovo news portal Gazeta Metro. He later alleged that the attack was likely linked to comments he’d made on social media about a local imam who received a Mercedes as a gift from worshippers on the day he retired.

The attack against Syla was condemned by the Association of Journalists of Kosovo, AJK, and European Federation of Journalists, which asked for an “urgent investigation” into the incident.

“This attack is totally unacceptable and is an attempt to hinder and undermine freedom of speech and freedom of media in Kosovo,” the AJK said.

Turkish investigative journalist Metin Cihan has said he will not delete his tweets on X (Twitter) about a former PM’s son’s dealings with Israel, despite a court ruling.

In his tweets, Cihan revealed that Erkam Yildirim, son of former Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, a close associate of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has continued to trade with Israel despite Erdogan’s party calling for a boycott of Israeli produce.

“I do not delete [Tweets]. Not claims, official sources available to everyone. That’s why you [the Yildirim family] could not even deny it. I responded to the reported [court] decision exactly like this,” Cihan said on X.

Cihan added that the judges had made a political decision. “It is not binding to me that you arrange judges [to make this decision]. I do not delete [Tweets] for Palestinian children,” Cihan added.

FreeWeb Turkey reported on Thursday that a court in Ankara had ordered Cihan to delete all his Tweets about Yildirim and his son, Erkam.

Cihan has been looking at Turkish trade with Israel since the war started between Hamas and Israel and has published his findings on his social media accounts.

Using open-source data, such the maritime trade archive, Cihan revealed that Turkish trade continues undisrupted, despite the government’s harsh stance against Israel, accusing it of genocide against Palestinians.

Members of Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, AKP, have called for a boycott of Israeli products and several large rallies condenming Israel have been organised by the party and its allies.

But Cihan revealed that senior AKP members continue to trade with Israel, including Burak Erdogan, President Erdogan’s son, Erkam Yildirim and an AKP lawmaker, Vehbi Koc.

The Erdogan family sued Cihan for slander and insult on November 29 but did not directly deny claims about doing trade with Israel.

“While the attack on Gaza was continuing, we sent 400 ships to Israel. We shipped 4,000,000 tons. We provided fuel for the Israeli planes, clothing for its soldiers, and parts for its weapons. Thank God, we sent our prayers to the Palestinians. Do not forget Palestine,” Cihan wrote on X on December 7.

Cihan has been forced to live in exile in Germany due to several ongoing cases and investigations against him in Turkey.

He previously reported on the murder of a girl called Rabia Naz in Giresun province in 2018. It is claimed that senior AKP former defence minister Nurettin Canikli covered up the murder.

During the pandemic, Cihan also revealed that the Health Ministry was manipulating the data on COVID-19 cases. In 2022, Cihan revealed an Islamist youth NGO’s secretive ties to the government and to Erdogan’s family.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s claim that the government can rapidly align the country’s laws with those of the EU using Chat GPT – so avoiding the costs that come from translations and lawyers – has drawn a sceptical response from some experts.

BIRN sent a request to the Prime Minister Office asking how the initiative would be implemented when no laws currently regulate the use of AI in the country, nor is there a national strategy about it.

It replied that they would use a “model that is internationally regulated” and have reviewed measures regarding the ethical and responsible use of AI.

“First, the model only consumes public data to perform the necessary information-retrieval,” it told told BIRN. “Secondly, regarding accountability, we emphasize that the model is an assistance tool for alignment experts, never a substitute, increasing their productivity and efficiency,” it added.

But some doubt the planned use of AI will amount to much.

Medlir Mema, Head of the Program on Artificial Intelligence and Global Governance at the Global Governance Institute in Brussels and professor of International Relations in the United States, told BIRN that, “regarding legislation or national strategy, it is clear that there is no such thing in Albania”.

“As for the data, it is impossible for OpenAI to do its work without having access to state data, including the laws in force in Albania, as well as those on private individuals. When it comes to confidential data, it is difficult to separate them from such a complicated process as completing the chapters for membership in the EU,” Mema told BIRN.

“Finally, the argument for not replacing people contradicts PM Rama’s speech in the SP [Socialist Party] Assembly, where he specifically underlined this argument. The truth is that the chapters are not completed without human supervision,” he concluded.

Another expert, Ornela Sollaku, from the Department of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies-UOM, told BIRN that an important factor to be taken into consideration in this case is the legal gap.

“This legal gap may lead to uncertainty among citizens and EU officials regarding its effectiveness. The indiscriminate use of AI raises ethical concerns related to privacy, transparency, and the potential for unintended consequences,” Sollaku told BIRN.

She stressed that human expertise remains key in the process. “An over-reliance on AI systems can foster a false sense of security. Human expertise and oversight remain essential to validate and interpret the results of AI algorithms,” she said.

When Rama presented the initiative earlier in December, he said that after a conversation with Mira Murati – who is of Albanian origin and works at OpenAI and has lead the company’s work on ChatGPT –  he realised the platform could be used to align the country’s laws with those of the EU.

“I asked if it is possible that, instead of recruiting an army of translators, a battalion of lawyers and spending who knows how many tens of millions of euros to prepare the mountain in Albanian with EU legal measures, we should do this through Chat GPT,” Rama said. “This is how the work started with Mira and a joint team that we created with AKSHI and its experts,” he added.

As part of a wider attempt to curb revenge porn and child sexual abuse, the European Commission has designated the well-known adult companies Pornhub, Stripchat and XVideos as Very Large Online Platforms, VLOPs, which means they will come under closer scrutiny.

“I welcome the designations of Pornhub, XVideos and Stripchat as Very Large Online Platforms. It will allow for higher scrutiny and accountability of their algorithms and processes. The DSA [Digital Services Act] demonstrates once again that it is an essential tool to ensure that technology respects the fundamental rights of European citizens,” Margrethe Vestager, Vice-President of Europe Fit for the Digital Age, said.

By February 17, 2024, the three companies will need to adopt specific measures to protect minors from harmful content and address the dissemination of illegal content.

Pornhub is a pornography video-sharing website based in Cyprus. Stripchat [Technius Ltd.], also based in Cyprus, is a live sex and entertainment community, and XVideos, based in the Czech Republic, is a pornographic video-sharing and viewing website. According to the Commission, the three companies fulfil the threshold of 45 million average monthly users in the EU.

“The criteria to determine if a platform is “very large” in the sense of the Digital Services Act are very straightforward,” stated Thierry Breton, Commissioner for the Internal Market.

“Any online platform with more than 45 million users in the EU has special obligations because of its scale. We have already designated 19 Very Large Online Platforms and Search Engines. We will continue to designate platforms that meet the thresholds and make sure that they comply with their obligations under the DSA … creating a safer online environment for our children is an enforcement priority under the DSA,” he added.

Pornhub on its website wrote that it has 33 million average monthly users, not 45 million: “As of July 31, 2023, Pornhub has 33 million average monthly recipients of the service in the European Union, calculated as an average over the period of the past six months,” it said.

The Commission’s decision comes amid rising concern about revenge porn and child sexual abuse.

Revenge porn, on its own, is not defined as a criminal offence in most Balkan countries. Greece made it an independent criminal offence in the criminal code in 2022 following the case of a TV presenter, Stathis Panagiotopoulos, who shared the sexual content of his partner on a porn platform. Besides that change, the porn industry is unregulated in Greece.

The Commission under the DSA designated 17 VLOPs and 2 Very Large Online Search Engines, VLOSEs, in April 2023, aiming to protect users online, including minors, requiring the companies to assess and mitigate their systemic risks and to provide robust content moderation tools.

The designated platforms were Alibaba AliExpress, Amazon Store, Apple AppStore, Booking.com, Facebook, Google Play, Google Maps, Google Shopping, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter, Wikipedia, YouTube, Zalando, Bing and Google Search.

Speakers from Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN’s digital rights programme and Freedom House’s Freedom on the Net project said in a joint X Space event on December 21 that digital rights violations increased in the region this year.

“We saw a rise in different types of violations. This year, we determined 1,427 different types of violations compared to last year’s 782,” Ivana Jeremic, Balkan Insight’s Deputy Editor and one of the editors of BIRN’s recent BIRN Digital Rights Violations Report, said.

Jeremic added that the most common digital rights violations were hate speech and discrimination, digital manipulation and computer fraud.

“Some of the key findings were that regional and international crises increased digital rights violations in the region, such as the war in Ukraine and the ongoing Kosovo-Serbia dispute, which led to a lot of misinformation but also to attacks based on someone’s ethnicity,” Jeremic said.

Jeremic highlighted the need for effective legislation to counter digital violations that most countries in the region lack.

Hamdi Firat Buyuk, a Balkan Insight journalist and one of the editors of BIRN’s recent BIRN Digital Rights Violations Report, said Turkey is using draconian laws to target free speech. “Turkey is one of the countries that passed draconian laws and regulations to target freedom of speech and internet freedoms,” Buyuk said.

Gurkan Ozturan, from the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom and Turkey country author at the Freedom on the Net report of Freedom House, said Turkey was regressing fast in terms of digital rights.

“Unfortunately, I am here to talk about one of the first countries in terms of regression in the field of digital rights and liberties in the past decade” Ozturan said, recalling that only a month after Turkey’s disinformation law was passed in October 2022, authorities limited access to social media platforms following a terror attack.

“Then there were earthquakes [in February] and then the election period [in May] which brought Turkey further down in Freedom House’s internet freedoms index. That was a horrible year,” Ozturan said, underlining access blocks, misinformation campaigns and data leaks from government agencies on citizens’ private data.

Tijana Uzelac, a BIRN Serbia journalist and country monitor of the BIRN Digital Rights Violations Report, said there were more than 100 registered digital rights violation cases in the reporting period from September 2022 to September 2023.

“The most frequent targets of these violations were citizens in more than 50 cases,” Uzelac said and added that the majority of violations in Serbia fell under “threatening content and endangering security”.

Uzelac said a massive school shooting in Serbia had also marked the year. “The number of digital rights violations spiked drastically in May after two mass school shootings in Belgrade and in villages near Mladenovac,” Uzelac added.

Mila Bajic, from SHARE Foundation and Serbia country author at the Freedom on the Net report of Freedom House, said the election campaigns provided an example of the climate in online media in Serbia.

“The online media ecosystem is essentially just an extension of the traditional media and the majority of the things we have been seeing is everything we can see on the public broadcasters and in the printed tabloid media. It is essentially copy-pasted to the online environment, which means that the online environment is very biased and in favour of the ruling majority [led by President Aleksandar Vucic],” Bajic said.

Bajic underlined that a lot of intimidation tactics online were deployed against journalists and civil society members, including an attempted spyware attack on civil society using Pegasus-like spyware. “That was thankfully not a successful attack but it does indicate that it was a state-sponsored attack,” Bajic said.

Azem Kurtic, Balkan Insight’s Bosnia correspondent and country monitor of the BIRN Digital Rights Violations Report. In Bosnia, said: “The most common victims [in Bosnia] are unfortunately citizens due to a quite specific ethnic, historic and current political context. For instance, during the commemorations of the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica, you saw a surge in hate speech and discrimination but also genocide denial, which is a criminal offence in Bosnia.”

Kurtic added that an online femicide had also shocked the country and the region. “We had a shocking femicide in August when a man killed his ex-wife in a livestream on Instagram. The video stayed online for more than three hours and it was seen more than 70,000 times,” Kurtic added.

Cathryn Grothe, from Freedom House, underlined a new emerging threat: the malicious use of Artificial Intelligence, AI.

“One of our big findings is generative use of AI supercharges online disinformation space. For decades governments have been deploying methods to manipulate online discussion, whether through pay commentators or automated Twitter bots or trolls or things like that kind, or more of those traditional forms of spreading disinformation, and with the growing power of AI tools those tactics are able to be automated and they are able to spread so much further,” Grothe said.

The joint X space organised by BIRN and Freedom House can be listened to on this link.

More about digital rights violations in the Balkans can be found at BIRN’s Digital Rights Violations Report 2022-2023, “Digital Rights In A Time Of Crisis: Authoritarianism, Political Tension And Weak Legislation Boost Violations” and in Freedom House’s Freedom on the Net 2023 report, “The Repressive Power of Artificial Intelligence”.

Grigoris Dimitriadis, nephew and former secretary of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, filed exorbitant strategic lawsuits against public participation or SLAPPs against media and journalists over reports about the wiretapping scandal known as “Predator-gate”, in which he is allegedly involved, a union said.

The Journalists’ Union of Athens daily newspapers, ESIEA, on Thursday claimed Dimitriadis “unleashed a flurry of new lawsuits against many journalists and the media and with exorbitant and exterminating claims”, to intimidate journalists and limit access to information.

Dimitriadis sent lawsuits to the media outlet Efimerida ton Syntakton, EfSyn, the media group Alter Ego and to journalist Dimitris Terzis, and for a second time to journalists Thanasis Koukakis, Nikolas Leontopoulos, Thodoris Chondrogiannos and Christoforos Kasdaglis.

In August 2022, Dimitriadis resigned following revelations of his alleged involvement with Intellexa, a company that sells Predator, an illegal spyware in Greece.

He denied wrongdoing and sued the media involved – Reporters United, EfSyn, as well as the journalist Koukakis, whose phone was infected with Predator.

His resignation was followed by that of the head of the National Intelligence Service, EYP, Panagiotis Kontoleon.

The wiretapping scandal, which has occupied the Greek media since 2022, concerns the use of Predator to monitor or attempt to monitor journalists, politicians and other public figures.

Dimitriadis now accuses Koukakis of indulging in systematic defamation of him through X [formerly Twitter] by reproducing articles insulting him over the wiretapping scandal. He is seeking 300,000 euros plus an extra 1,000 euros per day if he does not withdraw his tweets

“It is no coincidence that Dimitriadis is suing journalists and media at a time when important aspects of the wiretapping scandal are being revealed,” Koukakis told BIRN.

“The specific revelations reveal the role he played in the case in a period when he was responsible for Greece’s national intelligence service. The journalists involved in covering this unprecedented scandal they are not daunted or discouraged from such practices and are providing Greek justice with new evidence on a daily basis,” he added.

Dimitriadis filed a second legal action against EfSyn and the journalists Nikolas Leontopoulos, Thodoris Chondrogiannos and Christoforos Kasdaglis, members of the investigative media outlet Reporters United, over EfSyn’s cover of November 3 regarding the wiretapping scandal.

It wrote that Dimitriadis’ mobile phone number was used to infect 11 people with Predator.

The former PM’s secretary has demanded 2.45 million euros in compensation for the moral damage which he claims to have suffered.

“The investigation by EfsYn and Reporters United on the wiretapping scandal is a matter of public interest as it concerns democracy and the rule of law in Greece. Dimitriadis decided, instead of giving more answers, to proceed with legal actions before and after the publications and to file lawsuits. However, all these will not silence us,” Chondrogiannos told BIRN.

EfSyn and its journalist Dimitris Terzis received another legal action from Dimitriadis over the publications in the print edition and on the efsyn.gr website that followed the November 3 report.

“Both on the front page of 3/11 and in the related publications of our printed and electronic edition up to 8/11, there is neither the intention nor the suggestion of a slanderous reference,” stated EfSyn in a written announcement.

“Neither in the original publication nor in what followed in the wake of the original is it stated that the SMS were sent by Dimitriadis himself. It is reported that infected Predator messages were sent to 11 recipients using his mobile phone number,” it added.

The Council of the European Union announced on November 30 that it had reached a provisional agreement with the European Parliament over a directive designed to protect journalists and human rights defenders from abusive court proceedings, such as SLAPPs.