Media
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ΚασσάνδραFrans TimmermansGreece just killed media pluralism: Will Timmermans react?
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
Kassandra returns to the broadcast TV licensing issue in Greece, after the government as just completed the licensing procedure for nationwide licenses. For the next ten years, there will only be four private channels allowed to broadcast news in Greece.
The question is, why is the EU’s defender of the Rule of Law, First Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, staying silent on such a blatant attack on media pluralism, when for the case of Poland’s quest to exert more control over state media all hell broke loose?
The government auctioned off just four licenses, in a move that goes against not just the principles of free speech, but also media pluralism, whose basic premise is that all those who fulfill certain criteria can participate in the market.
An EU Commission staff working document on media pluralism in the EU analysed the media landscape in all the member states in 2007. There was no single country with a market-limit of number of licenses.
The government has mandated that the four licensees will be the only free-to-air nationwide channels that will be allowed to carry any sort of news content. For a decade, long after the mandate of the current government which is on course to be dethroned in elections in the next year, no new entrants will be allowed in the TV market.
Last Friday Kassandra also examined several problems with the auction process, which has now taken place.
“… pluralism of the media shall be respected”, says Article 11 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
One of the main factors of pluralism of the media is ‘pluralism of ownership’. Further examination highlights ‘supplier concentration’ as one of the dimensions. Taking this into consideration, limiting nation-wide news broadcasters to 4, clearly is a violation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
However… as an EU member state, Greece, is only bound by the charter when adopting or applying a national law implementing an EU directive or when the authorities apply an EU regulation directly… In other words, when dealing with issues outside of EU competence, its party time…
So, we must turn to something legally binding: Treaties and conventions, and the Rule of Law through the Greek constitution.
The EU Treaties
In discussing the functioning of public broadcasters (Protocol 29 of the Treaty of the EU), the state broadcasters’ functioning is set out with the “…need to preserve media pluralism” as a basic premise. The idea being that governments can manage the functioning of the state broadcasters, under certain conditions, as long as free speech isn’t hindered.
Thus media pluralism does not come in as a condition, but on a higher level, as the framework of consideration of the entire protocol.
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