Greece

[GR] Audiovisual Bill

IRIS 1995-7:1/18

Anastase N. Marinos

State Council in Greece

In late April, the Greek government presented a Bill ( see IRIS 1995-6:3) on the legal status of private television and local radio, the regulation of the broadcasting market and other articles.

The Bill comprises 4 chapters and 14 articles covering the following points : Article 1 deals with the status of operating licences of private television stations. Those stations that hold the licence are expected to protect the public interest and the quality of their programming, to give out impartial information and news and to make sure the principles of pluralism are adhered to.

The stations are also obliged to uphold the technical standards of their broadcasts. This status affects all stations : national, regional and local, including satellite broadcasting stations that use a link on Greek soil, whether they use Hertzian, cable, encoded or any other form of transmission.

The frequencies used by the stations belong to GREEK TELECOM and the public television channel ERT. Article 2 provides for the procedure for granting licences : the licence comes in the form of a ministerial decision, taken according to the recommendations of a National Audiovisual Board which are obligatory for the Minister. A station that wants to obtain a licence will have had to invest at least GDR 150 000 000 and offer good-quality programmes. These two criteria are duly weighed up.

Article 3 lays down a series of highly detailed general rules and standards for advertising. Article 4 provides for civil and penal penalties for failure to comply with the standards and duties as laid down by the law.

Article 5 outlines transitional regulations concerning those stations that currently hold a licence. Article 6 lays down the standards and procedure for granting licences for the setting-up of private radio stations.

Article 7 provides criteria governing the granting of private radio licences.

Article 8 lays down standards for advertising on private radio.

Article 9 lays down advertising standards for public audio-visual services.

Article 10 provides for the rights of producers of audio-visual works.

Article 11 lays down the status of audio-visual market research organisations.

Article 12 provides for standards of transparency with respect to advertising companies. The Bill, in its initial form, included a number of provisions for multimedia and included 36 articles, but the Government finally decided to put an amended Bill before Parliament that left out these provisions.