News radio stations targeted by media law

Michael Hedges - August 6, 2007

Private sector broadcasters venturing into news content often find themselves targets. Most prefer programming lots of music without any talk bordering on the controversial to avoid government wrath. The new Greek media law provides yet another example of State control.

In early July the Greek Parliament was handed the newest media law draft: “Concentration and Licensing of Media Enterprises and other Provisions.” In it were several provisions that drew the ire of European media watchers. In a letter to the Greek Parliament’s President Anna Benaki-Psarouda International Press Institute (IPI) Director Johann Fritz and South East Europe Media Organization (SEEMO) Secretary General Oliver Vujovic charged the Greek government with “seeking to directly influence the media market through the manipulation of the law.”

The new law passed July 5th, opposed only by minority political parties. To come into force it needs Greek President Karolos Papoulias’ signature. Media watchers have sent strong letters.

On the surface the new Greek media law accomplishes nominally understandable effects. Broadcasters will be required to post financial responsibility bonds, not altogether unfamiliar. Newspapers will be required to employ three full-time workers. In other words, the Greek government wants to discourage small media operators; all the better for big media operators.

But the financial responsibility clause goes a step further. Radio stations primarily broadcasting speech content (read: news) are required to post a bond of €100,000. Music radio stations need only post €60,000. Similarly, radio stations broadcasting news are required to have 20 full-time employees while music radio stations must have but three.

OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Miklos Haraszti observed that the new laws sets “a number of unnecessarily rigid requirements for obtaining a radio broadcasting license.”

IPI and SEEMO also pointed out that the new law contains language restricting new radio station licensee from broadcasting in languages other than Greek. Given the growing nationalistic thrust of many governments this, too, is understandable, though still reprehensible. All governments signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights and the Framework Convention and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages vow to protect the right of cultural and linguistic minorities to access information through media.

Here’s the killer quote from the treaty: “The right to freedom of expression and information is a fundamental right of all persons, including those belonging to national minorities, and includes the right to receive, seek and impart information and ideas in a language and media of their choice without undue interference by public authorities and regardless of frontiers.”

“Wide access to the public media,” said recently retired OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Rolf Ekeus, “can ensure that all ethnic communities have the opportunity to receive domestically produced information and news and, thereby, prevent a situation developing in which some ethnic groups have no alternative to external media sources.”

But, to paraphrase another luminary of free speech, what armies have OSCE and the Council of Europe?

Privately owned radio stations that offer news, talk-shows, debates, call-ins and discussions can find themselves subjected to every sort of government ordered punishment, from license revocation to fines and the occasional act of violence. State broadcasting, in the public service model or not, is far easier to control. Uganda’s government banned private broadcasters from “airing views or messages that have the potential to lead to disorder” in November 2005, four months ahead of elections. In the same year, Nepal’s King Gyanendra ordered news broadcasting stopped on radio stations other than those controlled by the government. Dictators in Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast and Venezuela have notoriously stifled criticism by decree. 

Historical precedent seems to have little effect on politicians’ enduring control wish, particularly as election seasons approach. The Yugoslav government constantly harassed and threatened radio station B92 in 1999. B92 is still on the air and, well, the rest is history.

The Greek government’s effort to pressure news radio stations must be viewed with a little context. At least four major privately owned radio stations broadcast mostly or entirely news and information in a competitive and independent media market of dozens of radio stations. Greek State radio broadcaster ERA, lacking at least the appearance of independence, is not considered a significant opinion maker. Then, too, Parliamentary elections are but weeks away, earlier than previously expected. Recent opinion polls suggest the lead of Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis’ center-right New Democracy party may be slipping. 

And “Turkey-bashing” is never far from the surface of Greek politics. The small Turkish minority of about 100,000 people live in Western Thrace, bordering Turkey and Bulgaria. The district has about six Turkish language radio stations, all privately owned. Cyprus territory notwithstanding, Greece and Turkey have long-standing contentious issues dating from the Ottoman Empire.

“The law will not cover the radio stations that have broadcasting licenses,” Greek Parliament member Ilhan Ahmet told Hürriyet. “The radios will be able to broadcast in other languages.” Ahmet represents the Thrace district. Of course, only about 250 of over 1000 radio stations in Greece are “officially” licensed.

Also threatened if the new media law is signed is Athens International Radio (AIR), which broadcasts English language news from a variety of sources including the BBC World Service. Even as English is the lingua franca of business, science and tourism it, too, is increasingly under threat in Europe. The French regulator CSA recently denied FM licenses to applicants for English language programming, awarding instead licenses for Arabic stations. The Swiss government transferred a nominally private radio license to the public broadcaster, with little opportunity for public discussion among the large English-speaking community most affected by the outcome. Though English is the dominant working language in Brussels none of the European organizations recognize it as a significant minority language. And, of course, Brussels has no English news radio station.

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