Profile / Lydia Emmanouilidou

Lydia Emmanouilidou

Investigative reporter & Fundraising strategist

Lydia is a journalist and audio producer with over a decade of experience in radio, print, and digital media. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, NPR, BBC, Al Jazeera, and other international outlets. She began her career at NPR’s Investigative Unit and has reported widely from Greece and across Europe, including as a foreign correspondent for The World, a BBC co-production airing on 300+ US public radio stations. Her reporting has earned top honors, including the 2024 IJ4EU Impact Award, the Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize, and a National Edward R. Murrow Award. Lydia regularly speaks at global journalism conferences and US universities, and contributes to editorial investigations and fundraising at Solomon.

Lydia's contributions

07 / 11 / 2025

Greece rejected the EU’s sheeppox vaccine, opting for mass slaughter. The virus is spreading.

Internal documents obtained by Solomon reveal the EU urged Greece to launch a vaccination campaign against sheeppox. Athens refused — and now the country faces one of its worst livestock crises in decades.

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05 / 11 / 2025

Stranded between borders: Europe’s broken system for reuniting refugee families 

Across Europe, unaccompanied minors who fled war and persecution wait to reunite with relatives a border or two away. What should take months can stretch into years. Solomon’s investigation traces the maze of bureaucracy and policy decisions keeping families apart.

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24 / 10 / 2025

Every minute, a building in Europe is demolished. The EU has no record of it.

Across the European Union, buildings are disappearing at an astonishing rate — roughly one every minute, according to independent researchers. Yet the bloc has no official record of what is being lost, even as it pledges to curb demolitions and promote renovation.

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08 / 10 / 2025

‘Migrants in their own land’: climate displacement at Europe’s external borders 

When record-breaking floods hit central Greece in 2023, entire villages were uprooted. Some of those left houseless remain in the refugee camp where they were relocated — a stark glimpse of Europe’s new reality, where climate disasters are displacing citizens alongside migrants.

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11 / 09 / 2025

EXCLUSIVE: “Following orders” — The defense of the Pylos coast guard officers 

The Hellenic Coast Guard has faced unprecedented scrutiny since June 2023, when a fishing trawler overloaded with migrants capsized and sank off the coast of Pylos, killing more than 600 people. Thirteen Coast Guard officers--the captain and crew of patrol vessel PPLS-920, the only ship on the scene when the boat went down--now face criminal charges. In an exclusive interview with Solomon, their lawyer presented the officers’ defense. Their version of events is juxtaposed against the findings of the Greek Ombudsman, whose confidential report—obtained by Solomon—challenges several of their claims and notes shortcomings in Coast Guard leadership on the night of June 14, 2023.

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11 / 09 / 2025

Exclusive: Lawyer defends Coast Guard officers accused in deadly Pylos shipwreck

The lawyer representing the Hellenic Coast Guard officers facing criminal charges over the deadly Pylos shipwreck speaks exclusively to Solomon.

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01 / 08 / 2025

On a quiet Greek island, a wind energy push ignites fierce local backlash 

As Greece races to expand renewable energy, can the island of Kythira be transformed into a wind power hub -- with 30 turbines planned in a protected zone -- against the will of its residents?

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30 / 07 / 2025

KKR: From Greece’s “red loans” to the occupied territories of Palestine

What do “red loans” in Greece, a music festival in Spain, the global arms trade, and the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank have in common? They’re all tied to the controversial American investment giant, KKR.

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Βίντεο Ισραήλ για ανθρωπιστική βοήθεια στην Παλαιστίνη 1

13 / 06 / 2025

“Smiles Don’t Lie” – Israeli Propaganda Targets Greece, EU Countries

As public attention in Greece and across Europe turns to the March to Gaza, Israel has launched a targeted campaign aimed at regional audiences. Through sponsored YouTube ads promoting its “humanitarian aid” efforts, the Israeli government is rapidly boosting video viewership across the region.

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16 / 04 / 2025

How A Shady US AI Company Dodged Fines and Defied Regulators Across Europe 

Clearview AI’s saga in Europe underscores the clash between international tech firms and supposedly robust EU privacy laws.

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31 / 03 / 2025

Unaccompanied Children Sleep on the Floor in Shifts in Greece’s ‘Model Camps’. The EU Is Aware.

Internal EU documents obtained through freedom of information requests and visual evidence from rights organizations on the ground, reveal systemic neglect of hundreds of unaccompanied children trapped in dire conditions in Greek refugee camps.

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10 / 12 / 2024

Abu Sultan’s Enterprise: The Smuggling Ring Behind the Pylos Shipwreck

The second part of the joint investigation by Solomon, ARIJ, El País, TAZ, and The New Humanitarian provides, in unprecedented detail, an account of the structure and operation of the north African smuggling ring behind the Pylos shipwreck.

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04 / 12 / 2024

Pylos Shipwreck: Greece knew the real smugglers 

Solomon's investigation–conducted in collaboration with El País, Die Tageszeitung, ARIJ, and The New Humanitarian–reveals that Egypt informed the Greek authorities that the nine survivors of the Pylos shipwreck were not members of the smuggling network. Yet, the men stayed behind bars for a year.

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21 / 05 / 2024

Testimony of Hellenic Coast Guard captain exonerates the “Pylos nine”

Nine Egyptian nationals, survivors of the deadly Pylos shipwreck, accused of smuggling and causing the vessel to sink, were found not guilty. Below is the statement given by the captain of PPLS-920, the only Coast Guard vessel present during the sinking of the Adriana in June 2023.

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03 / 04 / 2024

Heavy fine for the Ministry of Migration’s surveillance systems

The Hellenic Data Protection Authority issued the Ministry a €175,000 fine in regards to their digital management systems “Centaur” and “Hyperion”. Solomon had previously revealed that the Ministry’s two flagship programs were designed and implemented without the required data privacy protections.

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12 / 05 / 2023

EU Details Violations at Greece’s ‘Model’ Refugee Camps

Internal EU documents show Greece’s ‘new generation’ of refugee camps struggle to provide accommodations in line with asylum standards.

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Our Team

Iliana Papangeli

Managing Director

Iliana is a journalist and editor who has served as the Managing Director of Solomon since 2022. Under her leadership, Solomon has gained widespread recognition for its in-depth reporting on underreported issues in migration, accountability, and the environment, as well as for fostering cross-border collaborations and impactful storytelling. Iliana has also introduced a model of progressive leadership, with a strong commitment to prioritizing mental health and well-being within the Solomon team. Her work has earned her several prestigious accolades, including the IJ4EU Impact Award, the Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize, and the European Press Prize. She is a frequent speaker at international conferences and a strong advocate for well-being in newsrooms. She is a 2024 alumna of the LEDE program at Columbia University, and has served as a jury member for the IJ4EU Impact Award 2023 and the Evens Journalism Prize 2021. She holds a background in Psychology and Social Anthropology.

Stavros Malichudis

Chief Editor

Stavros is a reporter and editor. He has worked for the Agence France-Presse and inside story, and has participated in cross-border investigations with Lighthouse Reports and Investigate Europe. He’s member of Reporters United. His reports have been published in European media. He was shortlisted for the European Press Prize ‘21 and won the IJ4EU Impact Award ‘22. In 2019 he was selected as a fellow for BIRN's Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence (BFJE). He has been trained in data journalism at Columbia University in New York on a fellowship.

Corina Petridi

Investigative & data reporter

Corina is a journalist and data editor at Solomon. She has worked with VICE Greece, Reporters United, and Balkan investigative network BIRN. She has studied Political Science. In 2019, she won a scholarship to Columbia Journalism School's Lede Program on coding, data analysis, and visual storytelling. She has reported on migration, real estate, data privacy and gender.

Aristea Protonotariou

Chief Operations Officer

Aristea was born in 1994 and grew up on Kythira island, Greece. Her studies are in Journalism and Archives, Librarianship & Information Science. She was trained in Multimedia Journalism as an SNF scholar in Columbia University, NY. She holds an MA in Risk Communication and Crisis Journalism. Aristea is the founder of the “Migratory Birds”, the first newspaper in Greece made by and for refugee, migrant and Greek youth.

Danai Maragoudaki

Investigative reporter

Danai started working as a journalist in 2015. She has worked for several Greek media like inside story, VICE, and capital.gr. She is also a member of the investigative team The Manifold and the production team Paola Team Documentaries. Her reporting focuses on transparency and economics, technology, gender and LGBTQ+ rights. She has studied political science and translation.

Lydia Emmanouilidou

Investigative reporter & Fundraising strategist

Lydia is a journalist and audio producer with over a decade of experience in radio, print, and digital media. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, NPR, BBC, Al Jazeera, and other international outlets. She began her career at NPR’s Investigative Unit and has reported widely from Greece and across Europe, including as a foreign correspondent for The World, a BBC co-production airing on 300+ US public radio stations. Her reporting has earned top honors, including the 2024 IJ4EU Impact Award, the Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize, and a National Edward R. Murrow Award. Lydia regularly speaks at global journalism conferences and US universities, and contributes to editorial investigations and fundraising at Solomon.

Galatia Iatraki

Illustrator

Galatia creates illustrations for Solomon's stories. She studied and worked in Thessaloniki, the Netherlands and Crete in the field of information technology and multimedia. She has attended photography and archival practices seminars. Through photography and collage, she explores topics about contemporary social issues. She is currently based in Athens.

Gigi Papoulias

English editor

Gigi was raised in the US, a daughter of Greek immigrants. She graduated from Boston College with a concentration in Education and Modern Greek Studies. As a grant recipient at the University of Athens, she completed further coursework in Greek Studies. In her professional background, Gigi has provided writing, editing, translation and content development services to media and academic sectors, publishing companies and multinational corporations. She’s also taught at a multicultural kindergarten, worked in a restaurant kitchen, interpreted for immigration services at a US airport, sold t-shirts in Boston’s Faneuil Hall, and led meditation & mindfulness classes at a women’s center.

Nasruddin Nizami

Board member

Nasruddin is a board member and migration expert. He was born in Afghanistan and raised in Pakistan. He has worked as an interpreter, cultural mediator and case worker with IOM. He is a current board member of the Greek Council for Refugees. He has a degree in English Studies at Deree, the American College of Greece.