Transparency: Who is behind Reporters United?

Contents

Contents

[Last update: September 10, 2026]

1. Introduction

Our only asset, our only currency is our independence.

From the outset, we pledged “to restore a relationship of trust with the public based on practices which ensure transparency and independence: disclosure of our sources of funding, binding rules regarding our funding (no funding from the state or political parties, from corporations or from foundations which have a dominant position in the country’s public life) and disclosure of conflicts of interest for the journalists of the network.”

That is what this page is about. Each year, we publish in full detail:

  • our financial data
  • all our sources of income
  • how we spend our money
  • our ownership structure
  • labour relations within Reporters United
  • our code of conduct regarding conflicts of interest and transparency rules for reporters
  • our policy on who can and who cannot be a funder of Reporters United.

Our funding policy is constantly being tested in practice. Minor changes have occurred, mostly making it stricter (changes are always disclosed). We have declined significant funding by donors who were deemed incompatible. In some cases the incompatibility was obvious – in others, we decided after internal deliberation.

The amounts we turned down in order to uphold our principles and safeguard our independence total hundreds of thousands of euros. For example in 2024 we decided not to accept a major, three-year grant from a Europe-based foundation after discovering that its main source of funding was the Open Society Foundations.

We believe that, ultimately, it is only through public support that we can stay on the steep path to truly independent, ground-breaking journalism

2. Annual Accounts

Each year Reporters United publishes its financial accounts for the previous year based on data from our filings with the Greek tax authority AADE. (Click on the links to see the accounts for 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020.) 
 
Data outlined in the following sections is derived from our bank account transactions, which detail all revenue and expenses. As a matter of principle, there is no black money in Reporters United’s transactions. There are very small discrepancies between the two sources of data (AADE and bank account).

3. Revenue

Reporters United was established as a legal entity (as a civil non-profit company, an AMKE according to Greek law) in June 2019 and published its first story on its own website in November 2020 (“The murky waters of the Laskaridis shipping empire”).

We started out very small and we are growing fast (see graph). However, in absolute terms we remain a small project – which is why financial support from the public is so important.

We have come this far despite our very restrictive policy, which excludes funding from advertising, corporations, the Greek state, foreign governments and major foundations such as the Niarchos and Onassis foundations.

The chart shows actual revenue received, not the amounts owed to Reporters United. For example, it does not include outstanding receivables from content sales to other media organizations, both domestic and international, that have not yet been collected.

Reporters United has four sources of revenue:

  • Funding by the public, either through one-off or recurring monthly / annual donations, via the Support page. 
  • Institutional funding. When it comes to foundations, we are very selective, excluding organizations such as the Open Society Foundations abroad, and the Onassis and Niarchos Foundations in Greece, with the aim of safeguarding our independence and preserving our freedom to conduct research without restrictions. (More on our funding policy below.) We did not receive any foundation funding until 2023. Since August 2023, we have received funding from the Limelight Foundation. In March 2024 we first received funding from Antonis Schwarz, co-founder of Vouliwatch and the Guerilla Foundation.  
  • Selling journalistic content and journalistic services to (mostly international) media. (More on our sales to media partners, below.)
  • Project grants. Funding from European organizations such as Journalismfund and IJ4EU that support investigative journalism projects through competitive application processes, with awards decided by independent review panels. More on the project-based grants below.)

3.1 Funding by the public

From the outset, our aim has been to build a relationship of trust with the public and to bring together a community of readers who would support the project.

  • The content produced by Reporters United is and will remain openly available, free of charge. We want our articles to be widely read, not locked behind paywalls.
  • Readers who support us do not do so to gain exclusive access to closed content but to nurture a much-needed kind of journalism. They understand that journalism can only challenge power if it is financially independent.
  • We have not yet run a proper crowdfunding campaign – still, the amounts we are receiving in individual donations are steadily increasing and more and more donors are opting for recurring, rather than one-off donations.
  • As of August 2026, the total number of individual donors was 1345, of which 354 support Reporters United on a recurring monthly/annual basis, and 807 have made (one or more) one-off donations. This is an encouraging start, but a long way from our goal of making funding by the public our main source of income. (We are working on this one!)
  • We do not accept corporate donations.
  • Moreover, Reporters United does not accept schemes designed to conceal funding from companies or business interests, such as coordinated donations by company employees or the splitting of corporate donations into multiple small individual contributions.
  • The names of individual donors are published on the Reporters United website and in our financial report if the total amount donated by an individual exceeds €1,000 per year.
  • Reporters United pays the appropriate tax to the Greek authorities on all donations.

Individual donors contributing over €1,000 per year:

  • Eleni Fergadi, 3,123.68€, January 16, 2026
    Eleni Fergadi, 3,123.65€, January 3, 2025
    Eleni Fergadi, 3,123.68€, January 12, 2024

3.2 Institutional Funders

In July 2023, Reporters United signed a funding agreement with the Limelight Foundation (Netherlands) for €50,000 per year for three years. In February 2026, Limelight renewed funding for another three years (July 2026-June 2029) with the same annual amount.

In March 2024, we received €25,000 from Antonis Schwarz, founder of Vouliwatch and the Guerilla Foundation. For the years 2025 and 2026, Mr. Schwarz donated €10,000 for each year.

The criteria for accepting or refusing institutional funding are outlined in the funding policy section.

3.3 Sales to other media

  • The largest revenue stream in this category comes from our collaboration with Investigate Europe, including publications in media outlets across multiple European countries through that partnership.
  • In 2025, Reporters United sold content and journalistic services to international media outlets, including the BBC (UK), Follow the Money (Netherlands) and Il Fatto Quotidiano (Italy).
  • In 2025, Reporters United served as a “fiscal sponsor” for an international team of journalists that published an investigation into
    Israel’s influence networks in Europe (see our report here). The international team was based in the U.S. and needed a Europe-based media outlet to handle the financial management of the journalism project: to collect grant funds (which came from a European entity) and use them to pay the journalists and the contributors to the investigation (Americans, Europeans, and Israelis). The problem was the subject of the investigation: It was critical of the Israeli government – a fact that made many media outlets hesitant to take on the financial management of the project. Reporters United ultimately took on this role – it was one of the services it provided to foreign journalists throughout the year.
  • Until August 2025 our media partner in Greece was EfSyn newspaper.
  • As a matter of principle, Reporters United does not provide journalistic content to media outlets for free, in line with its policy of not publishing journalistic work without compensating the author.
  • Content published on the Reporters United website can be shared under the Creative Commons Attribution of Creator 4.0 International License.

3.4 Project grants

In 2025, Reporters United took part in cross-border investigations partly funded by JournalismFund and IJ4EU. Those projects were:

  • Green to Grey (our Greek story on Amazon wind farms in Greece’s wilderness areas here / funding by JournalismFund and IJ4EU)
  • Ecocide (coordinated by EIC / Web app showing how oil and gas projects affect Greek protected areas here / partial funding by IJ4EU)
  • The Cruel Condition (coordinated by Investigate Europe / Greek story on the hidden trauma of transgender people here / funded by IJ4EU)

Finally, thanks to a JournalismFund Professional Development Grant for Environmental Journalism, we were able to fund an eight month environmental fellowship for two young journalists

(You can read more about IJ4EU in the relevant section below).

4. Expenses

The “Expenses” field best illustrates the unique nature of a self-managed project that does not aim -nor is it capable- of generating a profit.
​​A key observation is that, despite the extremely strict funding criteria established by Reporters United, the increase in revenue has already allowed for a corresponding increase in expenses. Any profits -however small- are immediately reinvested in the development of investigative journalism.
In our case – a small journalism team being built from the ground up – the increase in payroll expenses goes hand in hand with a rapid shift from flexible employment arrangements to standard forms of employment. As of January 1, 2026 six Reporters United journalists enjoy full insurance coverage, as evidenced by the increase in the amounts spent on insurance premiums.

4.1 Legal Threats and Legal Costs

While Reporters United is a journalism project with annual revenue of around 200,000 euros, it is currently facing abusive SLAPP lawsuits that threaten it with financial ruin, seeking damages (against Reporters United, EfSyn newspaper and their reporters) of over 3 million euros.

Our investigation into the spyware scandal led to the resignation of the former secretary general (and nephew) of the prime minister Grigoris Dimitriadis who then sued us for defamation in 2022 and 2023.

The first case was heard at first instance in January 2024. In October 2024, the court of first instance dismissed Mr Dimitriadis’ case on the merits. He appealed against this decision.

Grigoris Dimitriadis’s second lawsuit against the Reporters United journalists was heard in the court of first instance on December 5, 2024. In April 2025, the court dismissed Mr. Dimitriadis’s second lawsuit on its merits, fully vindicating our reporting. The plaintiff filed an appeal.

The appeals court has yet to rule on the two lawsuits.

In February 2026, the president of the National Technical University of Athens sent a cease-and-desist letter regarding a Reporters United article on the use of cameras at the university. Our response, in a new report, can be found here.

The legal costs for both cases were covered by international press freedom organisations. The legal costs for 2022 were paid by RSF (Reporters Without Borders), while those for 2023 and 2024 were paid by the ECPMF (European Centre for Press and Media Freedom). These amounts do not appear in the financial statements as they were paid directly to the lawyer of Reporters United.

Legal costs other than those related to the two lawsuits (e.g. legal review of articles before publication) are paid by Reporters United.

5. Our staff

Currently (September 2026), Reporters United employs:

  • Five journalists on full-time contracts 
  • One journalist on a part-time contract (in educational leave)
  • Two freelance journalists on a fixed monthly salary 
  • Two non-journalists as freelancers on a fixed monthly salary
  • Two young journalists as environmental fellows, paid by Journalismfund.
  • The lowest salary for full-time employment at Reporters United is €1000 per month net (x14 months, to include the legal holiday bonuses). 
  • The gap between the lowest and the highest paid employee is €200 net per month.
  • Reporters United collaborates with the production company Spoovio for multimedia production (graphs, video, podcasts, websites, web apps) and community development. Spoovio receives a standard monthly payment.
  • In addition to the work of the core team, Reporters United also purchases services from journalists and non-journalists on a freelance basis.
  • As a matter of principle, we do not publish reports without paying.
  • In 2025 we significantly increased payments to freelancers- often giving more than what our financial situation would allow. (This refers to reports commissioned by us, not project grants where better funding terms usually apply). The lowest amount paid to a freelancer for one article was €300 plus VAT, while the top rate, for lengthy investigations published as a series, was €1,500 to €2,000 euros per investigation. In many cases, this means that the fees paid were several times higher than the revenue generated by those reports. They were also higher than the standard fees paid even by major media outlets.
  • We are under no illusions: Even with these fees, journalistic work remains poorly paid, given the high tax burden and the dramatic rise in the cost of living. It is significant, however, that we remain a nonprofit venture in which no profits are distributed; all revenue is reinvested in journalism, and all contributors (even the two founding partners) are compensated at nearly the same rate.

6. Our Statutes

6.1 Statutes

The original statute of Reporters United is available here. It is currently being amended to include our funding policy and to introduce safeguards designed to protect its independence through institutional and irreversible mechanisms.

6.2 Partners and legal representatives

The partners of the non-profit organisation, each with a 50% share, are Christoforos Kasdaglis and Nikolas Leontopoulos. (See below, for the change of ownership and the establishment of a workers cooperative.)

Reporters United was established in 2019 as a non-profit company (AMKE). It does not pay dividends and shareholders cannot take profits. All of Reporters United’s income is invested in its journalism operations.

One of the partners (NL) is paid €1,200 per month (x14 months). The other (CK) is retired and is paid as a freelancer.

The legal representative of Reporters United AMKE is Nikolas Leontopoulos.

6.3 Creating a Social Cooperative Enterprise

The ownership structure of Reporters United is changing. One of the two founding partners will withdraw from the company’s share capital to allow the creation of a coop instead. Reporters United will remain a non-profit organisation with two shareholders, one of which will be a Social Cooperative Enterprise (SCE / KOINSEP in Greek), formed by reporters regularly employed by  Reporters United. The share of the SCE in the capital of the non-profit will be large enough to give the workers a say in key decisions. This is the beginning of an experiment in self-managed media. 

6.4 Workers Representative

In January 2024 we elected our first workers representative, Eurydice Bersi who represents Reporters United on the joint media council of the Journalists Union (JUADN-ESIEA). Eurydice was reelected in January 2026.

6.5 Legal Adviser

Reporters United’s legal counsel is lawyer Clio Papapantoleon.

7. Funding Policy

Reporters United’s funding policy in 44 words: We do not accept money from the state and corporations, from the EU Commission and foreign governments. Likewise, we do not accept funding from foundations, Greek or international, if they dominate public life. Furthermore our reporters are bound by rules on conflicts of interest.

Our 10 NO's

  • Money from the Greek state
  • From foreign governments / embassies
  • From the European Commission
  • From corporations
  • Banks and shipping companies
  • From Greek foundations such as the Stavros Niarchos and the Onassis Foundation
  • From international foundations such as the Open Society Foundations and the Gates Foundation
  • Corporate contributions through donations
  • Bank loans
  • Advertising

7.1 Stavros Niarchos and Onassis Foundations

We do not accept funding from large foundations that dominate cultural, social and economic life. In the Greek context these are the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and the Onassis Foundation. These institutions influence policy through their funding so there is a need to report on them, not to be funded by them.

7.2 EU Commission

In recent years, the Commission has distributed millions of euros to journalists and media through direct programmes of its Directorates-General. We find these funds problematic when it comes to investigative journalism and have decided not to accept them.

7.3 Small states and EEA grants

In its initial version, our funding policy stated that we would not accept funding from large states (USA, China, Russia, Germany, France), leaving open the option of funding from smaller states. We had in mind the EEA Grants, whose main donor is the Norwegian government. In practice, we never applied for an EEA grant and ultimately decided to forgo funding from any government or state – large or small.

7.4 The case of IJ4EU

IJ4EU (Investigative Journalism for Europe) is perhaps the most important funding mechanism for cross-border investigative journalism in Europe, providing “grants to teams of journalists or news organisations in Europe investigating topics of public interest”. It fosters cross-border cooperation and joint journalistic investigations.

But there is a catch. IJ4EU’s funding comes mainly from the EU Commission and other donors: the Fritt Ord and Open Society Foundations, the Isocrates Foundation, Luminate and the city of Leipzig. (Note: Οpen Society’s funding was for the years 2021-2023, according to OSF’s own database.)

After much thought and discussion, we have decided not to exclude Reporters United and its reporters from potential IJ4EU funding, for the following reasons:

The Commission is not involved at any stage in deciding which projects to fund. There are two levels of decision-making that separate the Commission from the beneficiaries: the independent journalistic bodies that run IJ4EU and the jury that selects the projects. More specifically:

  • IJ4EU is managed by four independent journalism organisations, the International Press Institute (IPI), the European Journalism Centre (EJC), the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) and Arena for Journalism in Europe.
  • The Commission is not involved in the project selection process. The juries evaluating the journalists’ applications are appointed exclusively by the above-mentioned IJ4EU partners.
  • According to IJ4EU, “all funds provided by donors are managed by a consortium of independent organisations (IPI, EJC, ECPMF and Arena) dedicated to the protection of press freedom and independent journalism. No donor is permitted to exert influence over the selection of grantees or their work. Furthermore, IJ4EU is committed to protecting the editorial independence of all grantees.”

7.5 Employment incentives

We are currently (September 2026) not making use of subsidized employment schemes, such as OAED programmes. In the five years of our existence we have used such a scheme once, to employ a journalist for a period of 12 months at a reduced rate of insurance contributions.

7.6 Changes in funding policy

We are committed to maintaining the basic principles of our funding policy. If we decide to modify any aspect of it, we will (a) update our transparency page, (b) clearly state these changes in our next report, and (c) communicate the change through our social networks.

8. Incompatibilities and Conflicts of Interest

8.1 Relationship with government and state

  • Holding a government or state position is incompatible with participating in Reporters United.
  • Employment in state-owned media, such as ERT and Athens News Agency is allowed.
  • However, employment in the General Secretariat of the Press (a government ministry) or in press offices of the government, the state and partially state-owned companies (e.g. EYDAP, PPC) is incompatible.
  • Parallel employment in other professions (e.g. doctor, teacher etc) is of course allowed.

8.2 Relations with the private sector

  • Concurrent employment in the private sector is permitted, but Reporters United reporters must declare it in their declaration of interests.
  • Concurrent employment in press, communications, public relations or consultancy firms or firms providing consultancy services to corporations is incompatible with participation on the Reporters United team.

8.3 Participation in companies

  • Participation in the equity or management of companies is permitted, but Reporters United journalists must declare it on their Interests Disclosure Form.
  • Special consideration will be given to ‘politically interesting’ companies, for example listed companies, companies involved with the public sector, etc.

8.4 Political activity

  • Political activity is not incompatible with journalism, but Reporters United reporters are required to declare it on their interest disclosure form.
  • However, parallel work for political parties, including their press offices, is prohibited.

8.5 Declaration of Interests

Once a year, Reporters United journalists complete and sign a Declaration of Interests form, which is posted on their profile on the Reporters United website, detailing their financial interests (e.g. company shareholdings), possible outside employment, membership in political parties, etc.

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