Greece: Franco-Canadian journalist Romain Chauvet, wrongly convicted of spreading false information, must be acquitted
Accused of making a false bomb threat, Franco-Canadian journalist Romain Chauvet was sentenced in October 2023 to a six-month suspended prison sentence for "spreading false information." Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the Athens Court of Appeal, which will hear this case on 27 March, to acquit the reporter, who has been prosecuted based on an almost empty case file.
It was a word-against-word trial in which the benefit of the doubt should have gone to the accused. Franco-Canadian journalist Romain Chauvet, a freelance correspondent for Radio Canada, the French news channel BFMTV, and the online media outlet Courrier des Balkans, was charged under a law punishing the mass dissemination of false information for making a "false" statement — a statement that was communicated orally to only one person.
Despite this blatant lack of grounds, on 26 October 2023, the Athens court sentenced Romain Chauvet to a six-month suspended prison sentence for making a false bomb threat at the Greek capital's airport. The reporter’s case will be heard on appeal on 27 March.
“Justified by an almost empty case file, Romain Chauvet's conviction in the first instance is outrageous. We call on the Athens Court of Appeal to acquit the journalist. If the initial verdict is upheld on appeal, the Franco-Canadian reporter will become the only journalist arbitrarily convicted in a European Union Member State. In Greece, such a decision would instate a Damocles sword hanging over journalists, threatening them with abusive and unacceptable sanctions.
On 12 October 2023, as he was preparing to cover the repatriation of Canadian nationals from Israel at the Athens International Airport, Romain Chauvet was arrested and taken into police custody for 24 hours. The police accused him of "wanting to test the airport's security systems" by making a false bomb threat, an allegation the journalist categorically denies. Very quickly, Greek media widely reported the police's version of events, and the journalist became the target of a smear campaign. Two weeks later, the correspondent for Radio Canada, BFMTV, and Courrier des Balkans was convicted based solely on the testimony of an airport check-in counter employee.
Greece is ranked 88th out of 180 countries and territories in the RSF 2024 World Press Freedom Index — the worst ranking within the European Union.
