Search results : 98

The European Court of Human Rights recently delivered a judgment on the right to freedom of expression of a lawyer convicted for the insult and defamation of a public prosecutor during a television interview. In a case that received considerable media coverage, Georgis Alfantakis, a lawyer in Athens, was representing a popular Greek singer (A.V.). The singer had accused his wife, S.P., of fraud, forgery and use of forged documents causing losses to the State of nearly EUR 150,000. On the recommendation of the public prosecutor at the Athens Court of Appeal, D.M., it was decided not to bring charges...

The first digital terrestrial transmission in Greece of private television channels of national reach through the digital network provider Digea took place on 24 September 2009 in an area of the North Peloponnese, while current planning envisages the immediate launch of transmissions in big, urban centres as well. Greece has thus officially entered the period of digital transition envisaged in the ministerial decision, published in August 2008, which determined the frequencies on which the existing television stations can digitally transmit their analogue programme. On the institutional level,...

On 15 September 2009, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) made public its latest reports on the Czech Republic, Greece and Switzerland, adopted in the fourth round of its monitoring of the laws, policies and practices to combat racism in the Member States of the Council of Europe (for commentary on earlier reports, see IRIS 2009-8: 5, IRIS 2009-5: 4, IRIS 2008-4: 6, IRIS 2006-6: 4 and IRIS 2005-7: 3). Three main recommendations dealing with the (audiovisual) media and/or the Internet can be distilled from relevant sections of these reports. First, in each of the reports,...

In September 2009, the Ethniko Symvoulio Radiotileorasis (National Council for Radio and Television - ESR) issued a Directive that provides guidelines concerning the coverage by radio and television of the period prior to the Greek national parliamentary elections of 4 October 2009. The Directive was published several months after the publication of another Directive by the Council that dealt with the coverage of the period prior to the elections for the Greek members for the European Parliament. The two Directives contain many comparable provisions, however September’s Directive is more detailed...

The Εθνικό Συμβούλιο Ραδιοτηλεόρασης (National Council for Radio and Television - ESR) imposed the strictest sanction at its disposal in relation to television programmes on the television channel ANT1 in a decision issued on 2 June 2009, by ordering the termination of transmission of the reality show “The Moment of Truth”. The show involved players answering questions relating to their personal life in the presence of members of their immediate family. The show was divided into three different rounds; The questions during the first round were generally harmless, while those of the second and third...