To Proto Thema (Greek: Πρώτο Θέμα English: The Lead Story) is a Greek newspaper, published every Sunday. It was launched in 2005 by Makis Triantafyllopoulos, Themos Anastasiadis, and Tassos Karamitsos. An editorial team runs the newspaper, and all three of its founders are journalists; Triantafyllopoulos and Anastasiadis also host very popular television talk shows.
Despite criticism and derision from more high-brow media on account of its populist approach to news, as well as its policy of bundling soft-core pornographic DVDs with its issues, "Proto Thema" has repeatedly achieved record-breaking sales of over 200,000 issues in the relatively small Greek newspaper market. As of 2006, it frequently leads the chart of top-selling Sunday newspapers, leaving behind To Vima and Eleftherotypia.
In late December 2005, the newspaper broke the story of an alleged coverup by the Greek government of torture of Pakistani terrorist suspects. This story was picked up and covered by the international media. Guardian story BBC story