GREEK HELSINKI MONITOR (GHM)
MINORITY RIGHTS GROUP – GREECE (MRG-G)
Address: P.O. Box 60820, GR-15304 Glyka Nera
Telephone: (+30) 210.347.22.59. Fax: (+30) 210.601.87.60.
Web: www.GreekHelsinki.gr

Greek Helskinki Monitor and Minority Rights Group-Greece
Comment on the Banning of the TV Programme by NET
that Mentioned the Macedonian Language

March 28, 2005

Read this page in Macedonian

Greek Helsinki Monitor and Minority Rights Group-Greece would like to add to the release below that on the same day (23/03/2005) the Greek delegation claimed: "Concerning a question about a banned television programme, another delegate explained that the Committee had received some incomplete information. There had been a technical problem with the broadcast, which had been rescheduled for this Sunday. It would be shown on the same channel at the same time as originally scheduled, he explained."

Greece's second largest daily "Eleftherotypia" carried a story on the censorship under the title "The magic 'national' scissors" mentioning that the program's producer was told by the state television that "they wanted to check the content lest it offends sensitive national issues;" the area's prefect Yannis Stratakis called the action "unbelievable obscurantism" while the local MP Giorgos Lianis stated his intention to table a question in parliament.

There was no statement by NET to refute this story or to otherwise explain the fact that the program was not aired when originally scheduled. Following Greece's commitment to the UNHRC to air it, the program was indeed shown on Sunday 27 March, but unannounced, replacing the regular "World Music" ("Mousikes tou Kosmou") program listed in all - including NET's - schedules, without any announcement of the change being made by NET.