Chapter 300A[/B] of the law concerning the operation of the Cyprus Radio and Television Foundation is being revised, following the debate before the Internal Affairs Committee of the Parliament, following allegations of interference with the purpose of interrupting a broadcast and the resignation of journalist Dinos Finikaridis from presenting a broadcast. This was stated at today's meeting of the Committee by the Director General of RIK, Thanasis Tsokkos.
On the part of the Commission, its Chairman, Aristos Damianou, said that a report will be prepared to be presented before the Plenary Session of the Parliament, on the conclusions of the debate held recently, on the need to ensure freedom of the press and impartiality at RIK, the role of RIK as a public broadcaster and the risks of censorship of journalists and the media.
Damianou, noted that regardless of the political weight of the incident, there was public interest in this debate. "The internal issues of RIK are your business," Damianou said, addressing the representatives of the institution's management, but added that "issues of freedoms and rights are particularly important for the Commission and we hope that in the future we will have both better internal procedures and more sensitivity to issues that concern society as a whole."
Both the Director General of RIK, Thanasis Tsokkos, and the Chairman of the Board, Michael Michael Michael, did not want to add anything further to what had been discussed in previous meetings, while journalist Dinos Finikaridis, who was also present, did not ask to speak either. Chokkos said, however, that the Foundation's legal advisors have already received instructions to proceed with preparations for the revision of Chapter 300A, which governs the legislation governing the operation of the RIK.
In his intervention, DISY MP Kyriakos Hatzigiannis raised the issue of the way MPs and politicians in general are invited to RIK broadcasts, calling it opaque. "There are MPs who know where RIK is, and others who don't," he said, addressing Chokko, adding that the institution is not accountable regarding this practice. He asked that the Parliament be given an explanation as to whether MPs are promoted at will, or according to the wishes of parties or party interests.
In response to Mr. Hatzigiannis, the Chairman of the Board, Michael Michael, said that the representation of politicians is a matter for journalists and current affairs and stressed that the administration does not intervene except when there is a question of "fair representation, especially on issues concerning a particular political person." Responding to Hatzigiannis, RIK News and Current Affairs Director Yannis Nikolaou, who also attended the meeting, confirmed that current affairs is one of the main criteria for selecting guests for broadcasts.
In his own statement on the issue, Mr. Tsokkos said that the criteria for hosting politicians on RIK are the percentage of parties, the representatives sent by the parties in terms of party positioning and the topics covered by each MP. He added that RIK has an institutional obligation to inform the Parliament on a monthly basis on the issue of representation of politicians and said that it has never received any feedback or comments to make corrections.
For his part, DIKO MP Marinos Mousiuttas said that he too had requested explanations from RIK about three years ago regarding the hosting of politicians in broadcasts. Citing data that had been communicated to him at that time, according to which some MPs had been hosted dozens of times, while the Chairman of the parliamentary committee with most issues, as he said, had been hosted only twice, Mr. Moussiuttas said that this was not consistent with the answer given to him at that time, that the criteria for the selection of RIK guests is depending on the topic of their opinion and their availability.
EDEK MP Costas Efstathiou, who had been at the centre of the debate in the Committee after his intervention was cut off from the broadcast, made it clear that he was not leaving reproaches against anyone, including journalist Yannis Nikolaou. "We happen to be on the line many times, expecting to speak, but to be informed that it will not be possible, either because something timely happened, or because there was a delay," he said. He stressed, however, that "we are asking for more from RIK and as citizens, because it is a public broadcaster."
In her own statement, the MP for the Ecologists, Alexandra Attalidou, said that "informing the public is not just about people showing up and saying whatever they want off topic," adding that the people who work at RIK know this. "We must also not go to the point of wanting to control journalism," she said."
Source: CNA
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