GREECE / The courts will pronounce on the broadcasting reforms

The Council of State, the Supreme Administrative Court in Greece, will decide in the coming days whether the broadcasting reforms introduced by the government in February 2016 are constitutional or not.

The 25 judges who make up the Council approved the appeals filed by six private television stations which were not granted broadcasting licenses on September 2^nd and are therefore threatened with closure.

In their application, the six channels claim that the broadcasting reforms, which reduced the number of licenses for private television stations from 8 to 4, does not comply with the Greek Constitution. Constitutional lawyers take the view that the law passed this year allowing the government to award licenses, was invalid, and that only the broadcasting regulatory body is entitled to do that.

If the Council of State confirms that the new law is valid, the six channels without license will probably shut down definitively, with 2,000 jobs lost.

Of the country’s 8 private channels only 2 (Skai and Antenna) managed to obtain a broadcast license in September’s government-organized auctions. The two other licenses were won by new channels run by local business magnates. Those two, which were supposed to start broadcasting in November, are now being forced to postpone their launch pending the State Council’s verdict.

Sources: Financial Times, Satellifax