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Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-07-29
CONTENTS
[01] CoS refuses to suspend television licence tender
[01] CoS refuses to suspend television licence tender
The Council of State on Friday threw out all the petitions submitted
by Greek television channels asking for the suspension of a tender to
allocate four national television broadcasting licences in Greece. It
rejected the six petitions on the grounds that there were urgent reasons
of public interest for a rapid completion of the tender process.
The court had received six separate requests to order the suspension
of the process from the companies Alpha Satellite Television SA, Nea
Tileorasi SA - Star, Radio and Television SA - Epsilon, Antenna TV SA,
News Dot Com - SKAI SA and Tiletypos SA - Mega.
In its ruling, the committee considering the suspension request found
that the six channels were not in any way damaged by the tender and
accepted the government's arguments that reasons of public interest
demanded a swift conclusion of the process.
Among others, the state pointed out that the "repeatedly extended"
deadline for issuing licences had expired on December 31, 2015, creating
a "need for immediate legislative intervention," while the holding of
the tender was a commitment made by Greece under the agreement with its
partners and creditors. This agreement had called for fiscal measures
that "would include, among others, the announcement of a proclamation
of an international public tender inviting offers for the acquisition of
television licences and the payment of fees for the use of the relevant
frequencies."
Lastly, the court noted that many of Greece's television channels since
1989 had either operated without any licence at all or in a sort of
"legal limbo," since some licences issued in 1993 had been de jure
revoked after nine months, with repeated attempts at "legalisation"
through later legislative interventions not conforming to CoS standards.
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