Politics, the Media and NGOs: The Greek Experience

Abstract

During the last decade, Greek non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have not only increased in number, but have also raised many questions regarding their legitimacy. Their image is negative. With that in mind, the aim of this article is to examine the environment within which Greek NGOs have to operate, and in particular, the interaction between NGOs, the state and the media. In so doing, the following questions will be asked and analysed: first, what is the role and position of Greek NGOs in their interaction with the political system and the media? Are they an expression of bottom-up and citizen volunteerism or a top-down process? How does this enhance or undermine their autonomy and credibility? Second, which opportunities are available to Greek NGOs in a society where culture, combined with the unprecedented economic crisis, heavily doubts and challenges their existence and importance?

Key Words:

• Greek NGOs
• Greek civil society
• NGOs and the media
• NGOs and the state
• social constructivism and NGOs

Acknowledgements

This work has been supported by the European Union (European Social Fund – ESF) and Greek national funds through the Operational Program ‘Education and Lifelong Learning’ of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) – Research Funding Program: THALES ‘Investing in knowledge society through the European Social Fund’.

Notes

¹ The regulatory framework for NGOs in Greece is based on the constitutional right to form a variety of not-for-profit organizations. In Greece, NGOs are formally set up by submitting a petition to the first instance civil court or their region and have their own standing orders and a recognizable, usually elected, administrative board. The court normally approves their petitions and does not proceed to a substantive control of the aims of the organizations, nor does it keep an updated registry of approved organizations (Sotiropoulos & Bourikos, 2014, pp. 6–7).

² The most common reference laws in this regard are as follows: (a) law 2646/1998 which allows the Ministry of Health to register and certify non-profit organisations in the field of social care, and (b) law 3013/2002 which allows the Ministry of the Interior to maintain a register of Civil Protection organisations. The articles 10–17 of the law 2731/99 of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for International Development Cooperation describe the funding mechanism of NGOs that subscribe to the official register of Hellenic Aid, Greece's overseas development programme.

³ The case of the International Mine Initiative (IMI) is one of many which has attracted public interest. IMI's five goals were to remove landmines in Bosnia, Lebanon and Iraq. However, being under close scrutiny, its claims of being a world leader in de-mining operations became quite questionable (The Economist,20 February 2014).