The budget of RIK for 2023 was put under the microscope of the Parliamentary Committee Interior, which met on Thursday morning. The RIC budget will be debated in plenary on December 2, 2022.
The members of the Committee asked numerous questions and criticized RIK Board Chairman Michael Michael and the Foundation's Director General Thanasis Tsokos for issues related to the budget for the construction of the new buildings, the promotion of the activity of the parliamentary parties by the Foundation's television news programmes and the environment in which RIK employees work.
Michael Michael Michael[/B], Chairman of the Board of Directors of RIK, spoke of a "balanced" budget, adding that "we did a lot of work on the issue of RIK's new building facilities", saying that the amounts of the relevant studies for 2023 were reduced. At the same time, he described the new facilities as "essential".
Marios Mavridis[/B], DISY MP, said he was annoyed that the budget was increasing, adding that we should strive for better management, although some distortions were corrected. He also asked about the viewership and ratings of RIK programmes, the amount of unplanned expenditure, the deficit in the RIK pension fund, and whether new employees will be included in the new pension scheme.
Alexandra Attalidou[/B], Member of the Parliament for Ecology and Citizens' Co-operation, said that a serious question was raised about the working environment at RIK, since serious incidents have emerged that indicate a toxic environment. Moreover, she pointed out that "RIK is becoming more cyber-centric and this can be seen in its newscasts", adding that the civil society perspective is absent. "RIK's responsibility is to inform, not to pass a line to the population," he said, noting that there are no programmes dealing with issues on the European agenda, such as climate change. "RIK should be more informative," he said, questioning the number of RIK productions and the cost of each production.
For her part, Marina Nicolaou, an AKEL MP, asked for details about the construction of the new RIK building and asked why the amount for the production of programmes and documentaries was reduced by 510,000 euros. He also said that the parties are absent from the coverage of RIK news bulletins.
Aristos Damianou[/B], Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Internal Affairs and AKEL MP, said that more efforts should be made to cut costs, adding that there are "employees of different gears", as well as "an atmosphere of unequal treatment". In addition, Damianou asked if there are any programmes that have been cancelled and how effective the Human Resources Management Service at RIK is. "RIK shows favour to the government camp," he said, wondering why statements and party announcements are no longer covered in the midday and afternoon television bulletins.
Taking the floor, Michael Michael said that RIK's ratings are above the EBU average, which prompted the intervention of Aristos Damianos, who spoke about the ratings of RIK1 and RIK2 in aggregate. Furthermore, he said that an amount of 7 million euros goes directly to the Pension Fund, adding that the management of RIK took the initiative to conduct an investigation regarding work-related stress. "I have never intervened in a news story," said the Chairman of the Board of Directors of RIK, explaining that the reduction in productions for 2023 is due to the 2022 World Cup. "All the planned upgrades were made in the organizational chart. It is not possible to upgrade any people who do not have a degree," Michael indicated.
RIK's Director General, Thanasis Tsokos, said that "we are concerned about the research that has been done at RIK, stressing that we need qualitative research of the findings." Furthermore, he said that RIK has failed to cover and report on European issues, noting that a new show on European - economic issues has been created after the cancellation of a previous show that failed to fulfill its purpose. "The 14:00 and 18:00 broadcasts have high ratings, the directive on the coverage of parliamentary parties has not changed, however we will investigate AKEL's complaint," he said.
The Ministry Interior spokeswoman
gave clarifications on the amounts planned to be spent on the construction of the new RIK buildings. Mr. Tsokos said that he disagreed with the Interior Ministry's approach and wondered if the Ministry wanted the new facilities to be built.[/P]For his part, Nikos Sykas, DISY MP, asked why RIK's 6:00 p.m. newscast on Tuesday had been cancelled and expressed the feeling that RIK had reduced the presentation of parliamentary parties. On the other hand, he welcomed the effort to modernise the institution's organisational chart.
Aristos Damianou, described RIK's existing buildings as "unacceptable". "If the Interior Ministry does not believe in the necessity of new buildings, it is a problem. We disagree with the Ministry's approach." The representatives of the Ministries of Interior and Finance said they are in favor of new buildings.
At the end of the session, Michael Michael said that RIK journalists are professionals and work zealously.
In statements after the end of the session, Aristos Damianou, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Internal Affairs and AKEL MP, said that RIK "over the last decade has been gradually but steadily transformed from a state broadcaster to a government broadcaster", which is "unacceptable and unethical". He further said that "RIK is currently and gradually being transformed in a way that does not reflect both parity and impartial coverage of either news or information as a whole", adding that "the lion's share is taken up daily by the Cabinet and the President of the Republic".
"Today, in a written letter, the General Secretary of the AKEL C.E. will address RIK to re-castigate and ask for explanations for all these issues," Damianou said. "We recognise the role and mission, we are concerned and at the same time we believe that RIK can become better for the benefit of the country, information and impartiality. RIK is not adequately fulfilling this mission," he concluded.
Michael Michael[/B], Chairman of the Board of RIK, expressed confidence that there will be no problem in passing the Foundation's budget, which he believes will be unanimous as it was last year. "The state sponsorship is about 37 million euros and the rest is 1.5 million," he said, noting that RIK can have advertising from major sporting events such as the Football World Cup and the Olympics.
In response to a question, he said that the plan is to operate the RIK with proper labour institutions and to proceed with the construction of its new building facilities. He further expressed optimism about the construction of the new building, since everything that should have been submitted to both the Planning Office and the Ministry of Interior has already been submitted. "They have reduced the funds that we had in mind to be submitted with our budget," he added. "We have the assurance from the Ministry of Interior that once we are ready to go out to bid for the architectural competition and any other issue that needs funds, we will go with a supplemental budget," he stressed. "Neither the Ministry of Interior nor the Ministry of Finance will get in the way," he said."
Referring to the Foundation's budget, Michael explained that about 65% of the 37 million is salaries. "The budget is there to serve the needs as it is today, but I think there are so many things that need to change in the future," he noted. One of the issues being discussed in Europe regarding the so-called public service media is their funding." Asked about RIK's satellite programme, he said that "we will not only continue to support it, but we will strengthen it." In conclusion, in response to a question about the survey conducted on the working environment at RIK, he said only 25 per cent of employees responded. He pointed out that the unions have proposed some measures to mitigate the situation as described by the survey participants. "There are several things we need to do and we will soon have results," he said."
Source: CNA
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