You may or may not have heard the news about the closure (and then reopening) of the national TV station in Greece. The ERT is Hellas’ pride and joy that for many represents the Greek heritage. Samaras’ government had decided to shut the whole business down with the hope of reopening it with a much slimmer and more efficient workforce. In an equivocal decision today a Greek court held that the public broadcaster should not shut its doors after all and should remain operative while the reforms to its loss-making structures take place.
The brave journalists at ERT had continued to broadcast in spite of the order to shut down six days earlier. They also enjoyed expressions of solidarity from around the world – journalists should not be hushed up. The problem with ERT though is also that it is a behemoth – a giant with many lots of wastage. A large part of the monetary hemorrhage that jars badly with the general atmosphere of austerity is the manner with which the two main parties in Greece have used ERT as though it was their own home turf. A number of the 3,000 functionaries within the channel are political appointees and this portion should be the one bearing the brunt of a scaling down in the future.
It’s not only about functionaries though. There’s a corpus of journalists working with the national station and the shutting down of ERT has been seen as an affront to the basic principles of democracy and expression – rightly so. The focus cannot only be on that matter though. The Greek parties’ patronage and abuse of public funds to further their systems of cronyism must also be addressed.
Meanwhile in the Duchy
CSV president Michel Wolter has had to do some explaining after he commented on a case involving a private radio station. The news story in question was about General Prosecutor Robert Biever and the allegation that the Luxembourg secret service SREL had investigated him on suspicion of paedophilia. In a statement made in the Chamber of Deputies Wolter had implied that the station carrying the allegation should reveal its sources. His intervention was interpreted as as an attack on the freedom of the press and the law on the protection of sources while Wolter was seen as putting pressure on Radio 100,7 to reveal its sources.
From Wort.lu : Wolter explained on Monday that Claude Meisch and Xavier Bettel of the DP had made serious accusations that the CSV was behind this campaign to discredit Biever. Wolter added that the party could not let these accusations go uncommented.
Therefore, the party’s MPs decided together to release radio 100,7 from the protection of sources, should the source be a Member of Parliament for the CSV, as the only way to defend the CSV against the allegations. However, Wolter added that the party did not request or demand that the radio reveal its source, nor that the party exercised censorship or attacked the freedom of the press.
The politician expressed his regret over the current political climate in Luxembourg, saying that rumours were being spread to discredit politicians or political parties. Enough false pieces of information would eventually add up to a wrong picture, he said, prompting his strong statement in parliament. Instead, politicians should put their energy to developing ideas and policies to help Luxembourg tackle the future in the current economic climate, Wolter concluded.
This story rang a few bells in my head, particularly with regard to George Vella’s outburst in the Maltese parliament some time ago. The biggest danger the media seems to have in today’s modern democracy is that of being able to cope with the all-pervading and all-interfering instinct that political parties tend to have. The fact that the media wield such a crucial power for the proper functioning of a democracy makes it all the more important that they are protected from such assaults.
Not only in Malta.
