Arvanitis said he was asking whether such practices are compatible with the EU’s rule of law acquis and whether the Commission intends to strengthen protections for journalists through new legislative and policy initiatives, including measures against government threats and SLAPPs.

‘When government audacity becomes a threat, the response must be institutional and clear,’ Arvanitis said in a post on social media. He added: ‘I submitted a question to the European Commission about the intimidation tactics and threatening targeting of a journalist by the government spokesman.’

‘In a democracy, journalists are not threatened for doing their job. They check the power. And the power must respond. Not intimidate,’ he wrote.

Arvanitis said his questions to the Commission were:

  • ‘Are such practices compatible with the EU rule of law?’

  • ‘Will the protection of journalists against government threats and SLAPPs be substantially strengthened?’

‘Investigation is not destabilisation. Accountability is not a hostile act. Democracy does not operate with insinuations and targeting. Freedom of the press is a pillar of the rule of law. And it is not negotiable,’ he concluded.

The complaint concerns a briefing on 9 February

In his formal submission, filed as a question for written answer under Article 144 of the European Parliament’s Rules of Procedure, Arvanitis refers to an exchange during the official editors’ briefing on 9 February 2026.

According to Arvanitis, Avramidis asked about the actions of the relevant Greek authorities on the night of a shipwreck off the coast of Chios in which 15 people died. He cited statements by the local mayor that the Coast Guard had spotted the boat in Greek territorial waters and carried out ‘deterrence and repulsion operations’, and asked whether the operation was a rescue or a deterrence action.

Arvanitis quotes Marinakis as replying that ‘the job of the Coast Guard is […] and to prevent, based on what the law provides and without endangering human lives, at its own risk, illegal entry into our country’, and that ‘it is a matter of perspective’.

He says that when Avramidis returned with a follow-up question, the spokesman responded ‘with a series of insulting descriptions and threatening warnings with criminal implications’, which, he adds, escalated during the discussion.

Arvanitis’s question asks the Commission:

  1. Whether intimidation and threatening targeting of journalists by government officials are tolerated practices under the Union’s rule of law acquis.

  2. Whether, given the increasing frequency of similar incidents in other member states, it intends to strengthen the protection of journalists and their work through new legislative and policy initiatives.

In the text of the submission, Arvanitis also includes excerpts attributed to the exchange in which Marinakis is quoted as warning Avramidis: ‘do not distort my words, because at some point you may suffer the consequences of the law… Because what you are doing is criminal… it is called “falsification of data”… be careful, because at some point I will also be forced to take legal action… Enough with your immunity.’ He also quotes further remarks including: ‘In addition to being impudent, you are also a coward… every time you say something that I have not said, I will examine the legal avenue I have… when you do something that goes beyond the limits of the law and offends… you will have the consequences… you are on a commissioned duty.’

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