Judge Bars TV Migrant Boat Sinking Report, Mega TV Defies Her

Just a day after Greece’s World Press Freedom Index ranking fell to 99th, a judge has ordered a TV show not to show a documentary investigating the sinking of a migrant boat in which a dozen lives were lost, but was defied as the producers said they would go ahead and air it despite a threat of “severe legal sanctions.” Judge Antigoni Stamoleka said the report – for which she has also prohibited ads previewing it on Mega TV’s Protagonists show – could compromise the secrecy of the ongoing official investigation. It was not said who brought the case before her. Mega TV said the order was an unacceptable act of censorship, and insisted it would complete and air the report as planned during next week’s episode of the popular Protagonists show. “It would be a sad state of affairs if journalists had to secure judges’ permission to investigate a story,” reporter Stavros Theodorakis, who presents Protagonists, told the Associated Press. The Jan. 20 sinking of a boat trying to smuggle immigrants into Greece from the nearby Turkish coast left six dead and another six presumed drowned near Farmakonissi islet in the eastern Aegean Sea. The vessel was under tow by a coast guard speedboat. Survivors accused officials of trying to illegally return them to Turkish waters and botching the rescue effort — both which the Greek government denies. The European Union and international rights groups called for an independent investigation. Stamoleka is based on the Aegean Sea island of Kos, near Farmakonissi. Human rights groups have demanded an investigation with some blaming Greece for conducting so-called “pushbacks,” trying to force boats filled with immigrants back to the sea or toward Turkey, the launching spot for many seeking to come to Greece for asylum or a route into the EU.

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