Newspapers

The first newspaper to appear on Crete was the Vakai Girit ("Cretan Newspaper") published under Egyptian rule in 1831. As the official bilingual organ of the Egyptian authorities, it appeared in Greek and Turkish. Printing presses were banned once the island returned to Ottoman rule in 1840, and news reaching the Cretans was restricted to papers published elsewhere, such as in Syros, Athens and Constantinople.

During the course of the 1841 revolution the rebels printed a newspaper entitled "Rhadamanthys". The following attempt was made during the 1866 revolution the following year - the Revolutionary Assembly began printing "KRITI" ("CRETE") on a portable press, though circumstances prevented it from appearing regularly. From 1868 onwards a semi-official newspaper likewise named "Crete" was printed at the press of the General Administration in Chania.

Following the signing of the Haleppa Pact, prominent, cultivated townsmen set about publishing local newspapers. In Heraklion, this began in December 1880 with "Minos" produced by Chatzipetros Lydakis. The following year Stylianos Alexiou began publishing "Nea Evdomas" ("New Week").