- A major investigation by Data Journalists: From January 1, 2025, to the end of July, 293 advertising, communication, and marketing tenders and decisions were signed. The total amount reached €108 million.
- €21.6 million came from the Information Society for “advertising and marketing services — improving the population’s ability to cope with natural disasters through awareness campaigns.” The eight-month contract will channel funds to the media. It concerns the Ministry of Climate Crisis and was signed in February.
- €17 million will go to international media outlets for one season of tourism advertising in Attica. This is happening at a time when the government needs more favorable reporting from foreign media.
- “Reporters Without Borders”: “The government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, granted generous tax breaks for advertising in the media but sought to control the flow of information directly or indirectly.”
By Vasilis Galoupis
Since the beginning of the year, the government has engaged in a widespread campaign to distribute public funds for communication purposes to not only domestic media outlets, but also other entities. In recent weeks, the press and social media have mentioned various amounts of money spent—usually under trivial pretexts—for advertising and promoting government work. For example, the opposition media recently reported an expenditure of €80 million in recent years.
However, an investigation by Data Journalists reveals the true scale of the communications blitz that has been in full swing since the beginning of the year—one that cannot be characterized as “pre-election.”
According to data gathered by Data Journalists from all public sources of government information (ministries, agencies, and authorities managed or supervised by the government), commitments exceeding €108 million were made in the first seven months of 2025, for advertising and publicity expenses.
It should be noted that the infamous “Petsas List” during the pandemic, which led to the establishment of a Parliamentary Inquiry Committee, was estimated at around €20 million.
This is not the first time that our investigations have focused on the Prime Minister’s Office’s “inclination” to distribute money through advertising and publicity to Greek and foreign media, as well as on social media, as we shall see.
At the board meeting of the Land Registry on Thursday, June 26, the urgent allocation of €4 million to the media was discussed, to advertise the organization’s digital achievements in July.
Αποκάλυψη: Νέα «Λίστα Πέτσα» 4 εκατ. ευρώ για το Κτηματολόγιο
As we noted on July 1, this was “yet another ‘Petsas List,'” designed to fuel the communications machinery that has secured the government an unprecedented silence around its misdeeds for years. However, the administration of the Land Registry is considering launching this massive advertising campaign at the height of summer, even though the project it seeks to promote—the digitization of the Land Registry’s archives—has not been completed.
The €4 million has been split almost in half:
- €2.1 million will be distributed between now and July 20, 2025—when the entire country will be on holiday, eagerly awaiting news about the digitization of the Land Registry archives.
- The remaining €1.9 million will be allocated between August 25 and September 21, 2025. Once again, this will be at a time when the project will still not be complete.
- Television channels will receive the lion’s share of €2.3 million.
- Online news sites will split €680,000.
- Radio stations in Athens and Thessaloniki will receive €403,000, and regional stations will receive €173,600.
- Nationwide newspapers will receive €312,000, while regional papers will receive €134,000.
On March 10, 2025, the Ministry of Development announced the launch of the first phase of its “Advertising campaign within the framework of consumer protection measures aimed at combating high prices and inflation.”
Νέο «δώρο» 8,2 εκατ. ευρώ στα κανάλια για καμπάνια κατά της ακρίβειας
The total estimated value of the first phase was €3.7 million, including VAT. According to the official decision, the campaign will be carried out with the support of MEDIATECH S.A. across nationwide television networks, as well as TV outlets in Attica, Thessaloniki, and other regions.
MEDIATECH will organize the collection of materials, brief the Ministry on the detailed advertising plan, send broadcast orders to the media outlets, monitor their compliance, and evaluate the performance of the plan. However, the final cost of this project of questionable usefulness will exceed €3.7 million, as that amount only covers the first phase. In fact, it will be more than double that amount. The initial decision, signed by Development Minister Panagiotis Theodorikakos, specifies that “the total eligible public expenditure up to December 31, 2025 amounts to €8.18 million.”
On January 11, 2025, we reported that the government deemed it necessary to spend €35 million on a poorly defined project titled “Development and Operation of a Coordination, Navigation, and Multichannel Service Mechanism of the Ministry of Health.” More striking, however, is that public contracts have consistently included “gifts” to the media for the communication and promotion of such projects in recent years. The government has decided to allocate 10% of the total project cost, €35 million, to media outlets for advertising.
While these expenditures may be exorbitant, taken together, they do not exceed €16 million in any of the three cases. In comparison, the €108 million spent during the first seven months of 2025 is, at the very least, excessive.
“Control of information”
Independent journalistic organizations, such as Reporters Without Borders, have repeatedly highlighted in their reports on Greece (2021–2022) that:
“The conservative government under Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis granted generous tax breaks for advertising in the media but sought to control the flow of information in its efforts to address the pandemic and the refugee crisis. Investigative outlets and media critical of the government were excluded or received a disproportionately small share of advertising funds derived from a controversial €20 million public information campaign known as the ‘Petsa list.'”
Reporters Without Borders continued their assessment of Greece:
“Journalists had to obtain government permission before reporting from hospitals, and the Ministry of Health forbade medical staff from speaking to the media. In February 2021, public television channels were instructed not to broadcast footage of the prime minister disregarding lockdown rules.”
The Numbers
From January 1, 2025, through the end of July, 293 calls for tenders and related decisions were signed relating to advertising, communications, and marketing. The total sum reaches €108 million. The largest share of this money was allocated to domestic media outlets, though funds were also directed to international news networks as part of the government’s effort to promote its image abroad.
A corresponding Excel file details each decision, including the unique online publication number and the relevant agency (ministries, the Information Society, chambers of commerce, public organizations, independent authorities, TAIPED, regional and municipal governments, etc.).
Since the central government controls financial flows not only across public bodies and agencies, but also increasingly across local authorities, most of which are considered politically aligned with the ruling party, it is reasonable to conclude that the €108 million in communications spending, primarily toward media outlets, has been centrally coordinated and planned.
The Ministry of Climate Crisis has allocated €21.6 million to media outlets for “advertising and marketing services to improve the population’s capacity to respond to natural disasters through awareness campaigns.” The contract is for eight months.
A total of €17 million has been allocated to international media outlets for the 2025–26 tourism season.
Expenses to Newspapers with Easter Greetings from DEYAP
One decision allocates a substantial sum of 21.6 million euros, including VAT, from the “Information Society” fund for “advertising and marketing services to improve the population’s capacity to respond to natural disasters through awareness-raising actions.” The eight-month contract will direct funds to media outlets, including television, radio, print, and websites. The contract was signed in February by the Ministry of Climate Crisis.
There is also a contract exceeding 17 million euros (plus VAT) with the Information Society as the implementing body. This contract concerns the “Tourism Promotion and Development Actions of the Attica Region for the Period 2025-2026” and has an estimated value that may exceed 21 million euros. The decision was made in May 2025. The complete advertising campaign to promote Attica is designed for selected international markets, such as China, Australia, America, and Europe, with an emphasis on targeted promotion at airports and booking platforms. The contract also includes developing and adapting specialized content to support advertising campaigns in the targeted international markets.
One of the main terms states that “the actions in question must be implemented only in media based abroad,” which does not exclude media outlets owned by Greek businesses. However, the focus will be on the final list of international media outlets that received the advertisements and how this affects their stance toward the Greek government. It should be noted that this amount only concerns the tourism needs of the Attica region. All this comes at a time when the government needs more favorable coverage from foreign media as it faces harsh criticism over the Tempi accident and the OPEKEPE scandal.
There is also interest in other contracts involving smaller sums. For instance, the April 2025 decision by the Municipal Water and Sewerage Company of Patras (DEYAP) allocated 9,600 euros for publication of Easter greeting messages in newspapers.
The tables show the decisions and amounts
The tables with announcements and decisions totaling 108 million euros for advertising, communication, marketing, etc., running in the first half of 2025, by entities and organizations controlled or influenced by the government, are as follows:
Approvals from the General Secretariat of Communication:
The second table includes all the approvals granted by the General Secretariat of Communication in 2025 for campaigns and notifications to public entities. Some of these approvals commit funds for subsequent years, extending beyond a single year. These amounts have been included in the aforementioned total of 108 million euros.
Specifically:
The number 108
The number 108 holds dual significance for press freedom in our country and for the government’s communication strategy. In 2022, Greece ranked 108th on the Press Freedom Index. Three years later, the government spent 108 million euros in just six months to “stay in the good graces” of the media, promote its agenda with less societal resistance, and control the flow of information.
