Greece

[GR] Changes to Radio Broadcasting after a Judgement by the Highest Administrative Court

IRIS 2005-1:1/27

Alexandros Economou

National Council for Radio and Television

Fifteen radio broadcasting licenses (in the Attica department) have been cancelled by the Symvoulio tis Epikrateias (the Highest Administrative Court) two years and six months after having been issued by the former Minister of Press and Mass Media. According to judgment 2953 of 19 October 2004, the decision of Ethniko Symvoulio Radiotileorasis (National Council of Radio and Television, Independent Regulatory Authority ­ ESR) ­ which in 2001 only had to give its unanimous opinion to the Minister ­ was (among others) inadequately justified as regards the candidate stations. According to the judgment, the ESR (actually responsible for issuing both the invitation to tender and the license) must either complete the competition begun in April 2001, or cancel it and begin a new one. A ruling concerning the former radio stations that are currently broadcasting illegally after the judgment is also expected. In addition, a new competition is announced for January 2005 in the Attica department principally in order to renew the existing licenses of some twenty other stations, while the Minister of State (with responsibility for audiovisual matters) M. Th. Roussopoulos has declared that the actual system of granting licenses will be reformed. Since 1989, a high percentage of radio stations in the rest of the country broadcast without a license.