“What will happen to the TV stations that will shut down? What will happen to the people who now work there? You used to climb up the railings for the state television, but you don’t give a damn for those working in the private sector and now lose their jobs”.
“What you really want is not to clash with corruption. You only want to clash with others’ corruption. You only want to create a controlled regime. This is your policy when it comes to every sector, in the state as well. You create your own version of corruption. The dilemma today is old-type or SYRIZANLE style corruption,” stated Stavros Theodorakis, in his speech before the Hellenic Parliament yesterday, addressing the Prime Minister and the other Ministers of the government. Stavros Theodorakis pointed out: “You managed to steal the glory of your predecessors. They shut down the national television broadcaster and you are about to shut down, for the first time in a western country, private television stations”.
Mr Theodorakis referred to specific aspects of the bill on TV licenses, deconstructing the rhetoric of the government, saying: “The advertising pie for television in 2015 will range around 230 million euros. This amount of money is shared by eight television stations. You want this amount of money to be shared by four television stations. In which sense does this weaken the oligarch TV station owners in Greece, like you claim? This will just make oligarchs fewer, but stronger!”.
The leader of To Potami also referred to the people that will lose their jobs, due to the fall in TV licenses. He wondered: “What will happen to the TV stations that will shut down? What will happen to the people who now work there? You used to climb up the railings for the state television, but you don’t give a damn for those working in the private sector and now lose their jobs”.
Stavros Theodorakis insisted on the “political money” in media and corruption, concluding: “If you want the sinful relations of media and politicians to be over, you had and still have an easy solution. An amendment that will return the authority on television issues back to the Greek National Council for Radio and Television (NCRTV). This is the only solution”.
Mr Theodorakis finally reiterated the proposal submitted by To Potami: “We must absolutely shut the spigot of political money. We must give the license to those that fulfil the criteria and they must, of course, pay. We must reinforce the power of the NCRTV, not only when it comes to licensing, but also when it comes to the control. Whoever violates the law must endure the sanctions. To Potami was the only political party to submit a counter-proposal on the NCRTV, but you did not discuss at all this proposal. You want your own people or nothing!"
Photo credit: Theodore Manolopoulos
