New TV licence owners to meet with government reps

A barrage of criticism by opposition parties

The owners of the four new TV stations will be meeting with government representatives, later Monday at 3 pm, at Maximos Mansion. The four licence owners will see Minister of State Nikos Pappas, the government spokesperson, Olga Gerovasili and General Secretary of Information and Communication, Lefteris Krestos. According to government sources, the meeting will focus on procedural matters. Even though the TV licence tender process might have come to an end, but the political row continues to rage, as the opposition parties accuse the government of trying to create a media oligopoly in order to control the flow of news, thus creating new form of conflict if interest. Opposition parties claim that the excuse for issuing only four licences because the market is not large enough is simply unfounded. In this light, they argue, the government’s claim that it put some order in the media landscape is completely baseless and merely reinforces the impression that it real motive is to establish a new an oligopoly allowing the government an easier was to control information. Meanwhile, it is also facing criticism for shutting down other TV stations, with many journalists going out of work. The government could in time reap the negative political ramifications of its decision to shut down the other TV stations, similar to the move by the previous Greek government. Governments spokesperson Olga Gerovasili stressed that the new TV stations will be broadcasting in 90 days and the remaining stations will be compelled to shut down, likening their closure as tearing down illegal properties. Her statement caused the reaction of major opposition party New Democracy spokesperson, George Koumoutsakos, who said she was addicted to the government lies and as ‘viciously attacking the public’s common sense’. On its part, the socialist party of PASOK said the media oligopoly created would have serious repercussions on the quality of news and democracy. The leader of party ’To Potami’, Stavros Theodorakis said the government had made an erroneous decision to auction off only four TV licenses, while blasting the conditions under which the procedures took place by dubbing them the epitome of populism. The General Secretary of the Greek Communist party (KKE), Dimitris Koutsoumbas said the common sense of the Greek people had been violated.