Economou: The mass media cannot be ghost companies

“It is our belief that the mass media that will have access to taxpayers’ money cannot be media without an identity, they cannot be ghost companies,” said the deputy minister despite the prime minister. Yannis Oikonomou, during the first day of discussion of the bill on the press, in the parliamentary committee of Public Administration, Public Order and Justice.

“One cannot claim to be part of the media ecosystem because they have a server or a computer at home. They must be Media with an identity and characteristics that will give them entity. Above all, there is no media without journalists and other workers”, said Mr. Economou. The media need information professionals, “professionals who will ensure the credibility of the news and the quality of the commentary”, even more so since it is a media that will have access to taxpayers’ money, he noted.

“It is not possible that there are not some minimal obligations for employees, apart from journalists, who will support a number of direct functions of these media”, said the deputy minister. He added, however, that the government, before submitting this bill to the Parliament, “should have weighed the situation, weighed that we are in a period of time when it is difficult for press businesses to make ends meet and not to establish insurmountable demands”. The deputy minister referred to the following cases and the minimum requirements that are set:

“For nationwide daily newspapers, with our bill we have a requirement, in order for them to be registered and have access to funding possibilities, that there should be 15 journalists and 5 other staff. In other nationwide newspapers, there should be 10 journalists and 2 staff members. In the historical newspapers, those that have been in circulation for 30 years, we qualified the historicity and said that they will have an obligation of a minimum number of 4 journalists without the need for other staff. In the regional press, in cases where newspapers operate in an environment, in a geographical unit of less than 200,000 people, the requirement is to have 2 journalists and 1 person other staff. It is the minimum possible requirement, based on the provision of the law in an amendment we had voted earlier, in order for them to mention their publisher or manager, as members of the Associations, on their identity.

In regional weekly newspapers, in areas that have of 80,000 or less inhabitants, the minimum obligation is to have 1 journalist, and in essence, without the obligation for other staff” said Mr. Economou.

The deputy minister also referred to the contribution of the press, noting that “the contribution of the press to the socio-political life of the country is undeniable. Our government obviously recognizes the role that the press plays in democracy and in our country. That is why, with continuous and continuous legislation throughout her tenure, especially in the last critical years, we resolutely strengthen the press, so that it can endure, face the difficulties caused by international crises, and it is our commitment to let us continue to support him to play his valuable role for the benefit of the society, the country and the quality of democracy. Consistent with this commitment, we have drawn up and are bringing to the Parliament a coherent, modern framework, both for the printed and the electronic press”, said Yiannis Oikonomou.

As the deputy minister clarified, the bill does not aim to influence what every newspaper in circulation will write, or what every website that exists will post. “It is not a bill that in its scope deals with the views expressed by each newspaper or each site,” he said, to underline that “censorship is outside the value framework” of the ND, as a faction.

The bill, said the deputy minister in addition to the prime minister, “formulates uniform rules for the possibility of granting state advertising and state aid to press businesses”, “sets a framework of transparency rules, regarding access to taxpayers’ money”, “sets minimum conditions that must have, those from the media sector will have access to Greek taxpayers’ money”.

In particular, Mr. Economou said that:

• all of the press, printed and electronic, is included in registers
• inclusion in the registers is a necessary condition in order to have access to the taxpayer’s money, either through government advertising or through government aid programs
• for the inclusion in the registers conditions are set related to the identity of the Media, its course, its historicity, mainly with the journalists and workers it employs.
• conditions control procedures are established
• a committee is established to observe the principles of journalistic ethics and ethics.

Yiannis Oikonomou also pointed out that the bill establishes clear control and sanction procedures, which give the opportunity to the general secretariat of Communication and Information to oversee the implementation of the law, “to shape a culture of compliance and offer the guarantee to the whole area , that it will not be tested by unfair competition, by other businesses that will not honor their obligations and will pretend to honor them.”

Furthermore, Mr. Economou said that the bill is a further attempt to “shield the journalistic nature of this entire ecosystem”. His phrase is typical, that for the government “qualified journalistic staff, respect for journalistic ethics, are a guarantee for the quality operation of the press”. This is the goal served, as he said, by the establishment of the Journalistic Ethics and Ethics committee. “If you carefully read the specific article, you will see that this committee does not include a single representative of the government. No one who has an organic relationship with the government. Nor does the government appoint. In this committee, the majority are journalists,” said Mr. Economou. He also pointed out that this committee that is being instituted is equivalent to the one that already functions as an advisory committee and approves the financing of the journalists’ insurance body, EDOEAP. “This committee has exactly the same character, and in fact it has a better analogy with the bill, because the journalists here also have the majority. So this committee of EDOEAP, which gives opinions and helped a lot to avoid various problems in the payment of these financings, is like and like the committee provided for in the bill”, said the deputy minister.

Referring to the electronic press, Mr. Economou pointed out that with the bill, for the first time, it is established the definition of the electronic press and the possibility of participation of these companies in financing programs is clarified.

In relation to the regional press, he said that a binding repayment schedule is being established for the small newspapers, by the contracting authorities, in the case of proclamations. A special mark and a unique number are also established, with the aim “to constitute a certificate of extended credibility”, “to help recognize and strengthen the solvency and prestige of the Media more broadly”.

RES-EMP

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