Solomon

Solomon was launched in 2016 to exclusively cover migration and refugee related issues during the peak of the Mediterranean refugee crisis.

"We wanted to ask this question: 'How is it possible to integrate the refugees who are arriving now, when Greece does not even take care of the migrants who arrived before?'" said Solomon's editor-in-chief, Stavros Malichudis.

Solomon's coverage of migration and refugees brought over the innovation of promoting the collaboration between journalists and migrant/refugee communities. One of the founders of Solomon was Nasruddin Nizami, an Afghan who currently works for the Greek Council for Refugees as a board member. Another of the founders, Nadir Noori, was appointed by the Greek Ministry of Migration Policy and the UNHCR as the coordinator of the Helliniko refugee camp in 2016.

"We cover migration from inside the community. We are with them, not outside, looking in and parachuting from time to time to get the story," Malichudis said.

Solomon's name references the elephant character in José Saramago's book, The Elephant's Journey. One of the website's founders loved the book by the Portuguese author so much that the team agreed on taking the protagonist's name, which, according to their interpretation, was an adequate reference to the perils and ordeals of the journeys taken by migrants and refugees.

Most recently, Solomon started covering topics like the environment, corruption, and accountability through the lens of investigative journalism. Its initial way of working extended to all subjects covered by the website: "We work in collaboration with different professionals and people with different experiences. In Greece, mainstream and traditional media still work the old way: the reporter writes the story, and people are not very much into collaborating. That's one thing we are trying to change at Solomon."

Solomon reaches some 50,000 users a year. Malichudis believes the website's reach is growing, as Solomon's investigations are quoted in the Greek and the European parliaments.

The media outlet is primarily funded through journalism grants.

Last updated: January 2023