Search results : 101

In June and September 2013, two co-ministerial decisions were published containing the date of the definitive national switch-off of analogue signals (1 October 2014) and the dates of switch-off for each of the thirteen allotments throughout the country. These dates for switchover were decided after public consultation organized by the telecoms regulator, EETT. This consultation also concerned a tender that is to be held in the coming weeks concerning the rights of use of four frequencies for national television stations as well as one frequency for each of the thirteen allotments for regional...

On 19 July 2013, Act no. 4173 on New Greek Radio, Internet and Television was adopted by the Greek Parliament. The act establishes a new public service broadcaster to replace the former public service broadcaster ERT, which was shut down by the government on 11 June 2013 (see IRIS 2013-6/24). This law is very similar to the one drafted one year ago by a special committee of experts presided over by N. Alivizatos, professor of Constitutional Law in the Athens Faculty of Law (see IRIS 2012-5/25). A Supervisory Council has been established to ensure that the new public service broadcaster is independent...

On 11 June 2013, the Greek government decided to close down the public service broadcaster "Elliniki Radiofonia Tilieorasi S. A." (a company owned by the Greek State and employing more than 2600 employees). On the same evening, Simos Kedikoglou, spokesman and deputy-minister responsible for the media, characterised ERT as a "typical example of unique lack of transparency and incredible waste" and attributed its sudden close to the fact that there was no room for delay. At 23:10h, all three national channels of ERT went black and seven national radio channels were turned off. Many reactions to this...

A further step towards digital transition was achieved in October 2012 with the publication of a co-ministerial decision containing the Chart of radio frequencies assigned for terrestrial digital transmission of TV programmes as well as conditions for their use. According to this decision, a timetable containing dates for analogue TV switch-off in different regions is to be published. It is almost certain that the date announced last year (30 June 2013, see IRIS 2012-5/26) for the definitive analogue switch-off cannot be achieved. Although in practice digital transition is progressing among the...

In a judgment of 29 November 2012, the General Court of the European Union (EGC) ruled that the refusal of the European Central Bank (ECB) to grant access to documents relating to the economic situation in Greece was lawful. In 2010, a journalist asked the ECB to give her access to two documents dealing with the economic situation in Greece. The first described the economic situation in that country as of March 2010; the second dealt with transactions effected by a company set up by the National Bank of Greece and its content was closely connected to that of the first document. The ECB refused...