The third Greek Parliament leaders meeting on the Greek National Council for State Radio and Television (NCRTV) began at 2 p.m. on Wednesday but did not bear results as the conservative New Democracy, socialist PASOK and centrist Potami parties postponed decisions until after a decision is made by the Council of State. Speaker of the House, Nikos Voutsis, referred to the government’s ineffectiveness in electing the NCRTV as a “prolonged handicap.”
“The responsibilities of the NCRTV are many and the outstanding issues caused by its non-existence are many and very serious and we have a portion of the blame according to our failure to (implement) the constitution,” said Voutsis, that pointed to the plethora of responsibilities that the NCRTV has, such as its role in supervising, restructuring and regulating the media landscape.
Voutsis stressed that the opposition, in its objection to one law, is not ratifying another matter. He had come to the table with proposals for the council, these included Vassilis Karapostolis (lecturer), Lilian Mitrou (lawyer), Fani Petralia (journalist), Angelikis Sgora (professor), Yiannis Tzanetakos (journalist) and Konstandinos Tsakiris (radio and TV technology expert).
Opposition New Democracy Party leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis rejected the creation of the NCRTV yet again, resulting in the 4/5 required support being unattainable. “We had placed a precondition from the start,” said Mitsotakis. “We want the reinstatement of constitutional legality through the abolition of the (TV License) law by (State Minister Nikos) Pappas and the return of the NCRTV’s responsibilities. The appointment of the NCRTV will come later.”
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