THE RIGHTS culture that plagues Cyprus has taken absurd proportions, as Strovolos mayor Savvas Iliofotou recently found out.
In an article published this week, Iliofotou explained that Strovolos Municipality had instructed its traffic wardens to take photographs of illegally parked cars when issuing a fine. The council was obliged to resort to this measure because many car owners went to the mayor’s office, denying they had parked illegally and refused to pay the fine.
Once the mayor started producing photographs of the illegally parked cars, the liars were obliged pay their fine and eventually stopped bothering him. The practice proved so successful, he was considering using it for other instances of law-breaking in which the offender refused to pay the municipal fine.
But everything has now been put on hold because the municipality has been reported for potentially violating personal data laws. The authorities have been told that taking a picture of a car parked on the pavement or on a double yellow line, could be a violation of someone’s personal data. The Commissioner for the Protection of Personal Data Goula Frangou is investigating the matter, but no decision has been taken.
“Is the photographing of an illegally parked car a violation of personal data, or a violation of our logic?” Iliofotou asked and he had a point. Only in Cyprus’ entitlement culture, in which everyone has rights but no responsibilities could such an absurd issue have been given the time of day by a state official. The Commissioner should not even have bothered with such a triviality.
If a driver who shows blatant contempt for the law and his fellow citizens by parking on the pavement, blocking access to pedestrians and people in wheelchairs, why should his personal data not be violated? He is violating the rights of pedestrians to use the pavements and is also refusing to pay a fine for breaking the law. But when he is ordered to pay a fine for violating the law and disrespecting the rights of his fellow citizens, he remembered that his right to privacy had been violated.
Frangou should have used commonsense and told the complainant that there was no violation. And if he felt hard done by, he could have filed a recourse to the European Court of Human Rights, claiming that his right to park illegally and not to pay a fine was being violated by Strovolos Municipality.
This is how these people should be treated instead of the Commissioner immediately investigating the allegation and reprimanding the mayor for showing a lack of respect to her office. Would Frangou accuse a bank of violating a bank robber’s personal data, because he was filmed by CCTV and reported to the police? Officials must use their commonsense when dealing with these issues.