LTV-CyTA discussion postponed again

YESTERDAY’S planned plenum discussion on the controversial agreement between telecommunication giant CyTA and pay TV channel LTV has been postponed until next Thursday, in what is turning out to be a domino effect of plenum postponements.

The multi-million pound deal between the island’s state run telecommunications authority and subscriber channel LTV envisages the latter providing television content to CyTA’s miVision digital platform in coming years.

The agreement has sparked protest from private telecom operators who claim the collaboration will create a super-monopoly in the telecom business that will end all competition in the market.

House Speaker Demetris Christofias said yesterday that the decision to postpone the discussion was taken earlier that day during a meeting of parliamentary party heads and members. According to Christofias, DISY requested a one-week postponement of the discussion because DISY head Nicos Anastassiades was abroad.

Christofias also said that it had been decided during the meeting to limit the total amount of time allotted to each party for speeches by their MPs.

Christofias’ announcement led to a number of angry responses from MPs, one of whom claimed that they were being “punished” by being denied discussion on the deal.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.