Every country has a mix of media including the press, television, radio, and today various computer services. The different elements of the media may have different sources and different controls imposed upon them, and the degree of freedom accorded the media will vary from country to country. Greece is a country that has had a complex political development in modern times even as the mass media has become a force for the dissemination of information around the world, and the media has often become the focus for political wrangling among the different factions in Greece. The degree of control imposed on the media in Greece is also a function of the political development of that country since World War II.
The monarchy in Greece was abolished in 1924 and reinstated in 1935. The war saw the royal family abroad while Greece was occupied by the Axis powers, and the monarchy was restored again in 1946. A succession of conservative governments were in place until 1964, when King Constantine dismissed Papandreou, initiating a series of crises leading to a military junta in 1967. Civilian control was reinstated in 1974, and the present republican constitution was created in 1975 (Banks, 1990, 245). Under this constitution, Greece has a parliamentary system with separation of powers. There is a unicameral legislature that elects the president of the republic as the head of state. That person in turn appoints the prime minister as the head of the government, representing a majority of the legislature. Government must maintain the confidence of the legislature. The government is highly centralized, and efforts have been made since 1981 to decentralize decision making. Greece has a highly political environment marked by two major political parties--the Panhellenic Socialist Movement and New Democracy--and a distant third party in the Communist Party. The state is divided into nine regions of geographic and historical significance b...