State Broadcasting Corporation’s treatment of AKEL provocative
Statement by Stefanos Stefanou, AKEL C.C. Spokesperson
AKEL 19th December 2016, Nicosia
AKEL C.C. Spokesperson Stefanos Stefanou sent a letter today to the President of the public Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (RIK) Thanasis Tsokos.
The following letter was sent:
“Yesterday evening, during the live televised transmission of the statements that were being made by the General Secretary of the C.C. of AKEL Andros Kyprianou on the municipal elections, RIK stopped the live transmission to show the visit of the President of the governing DISY party Mr. Averof Neophytou to the electoral headquarters of Mr. Nikolaides in Limassol.
We point out that both Mr. Averof Neophytou and Mr. Nikolaides, had already made their own statements previously that were transmitted live by RIK.
RIK’s action to interrupt the statements of the General Secretary of the C.C. of AKEL represents a provocative and offensive action against the Party and violates every rule of objectivity and code of ethics, which the public broadcasting station must implement with consistency.
We express our strong disapproval about this action. This incident is the last straw in the line of RIK’s unethical and discriminatory actions against AKEL which we on several occasions, either in written or oral form, have informed you about.
AKEL has on several occasions expressed the view that RIK, as the Public Broadcasting Station must show the way of journalist ethics to private stations. We have on various occasions expressed the view that for RIK to operate objectively it is imperative that a Code of Ethics is established. Unfortunately, we have not seen any concrete action in this direction. The unacceptable phenomena of bias and favoritism are continuing
Mr. President,
I hereby notify you that as an expression of our protest at last night’s incident, but also due to RIK’s general stance against the Party, AKEL has decided that none of our representatives will participate in radio or television discussions being held by RIK.
Our decision will apply until RIK offers tangible examples for the establishment of a Code of Conduct.
It goes without saying that AKEL expects the Board of RIK to issue a public apology for those unacceptable actions that took place last night.”
