Whatever you do, don’t mention the teeth implants

A SPOKESWOMAN for Sigma TV yesterday rushed to defend the sudden interruption of its talk show Me tin Elita (With Elita) after the Deputy’s Attorney-general’s teeth implant scandal came up.

The show was cut off while Health Minister Christos Patsalides was being interviewed over the phone and was being quizzed about scandal.

The show’s host, Elita Michaelides, had been in the middle of interviewing Patsalides on the ministry’s lack of an efficient system for sending patients abroad, when the show’s psychologist – Vasilis Michaelides – mentioned the “scandalous handlings of the Health Ministry” in the case of Akis Papasavvas’ teeth implants.

As Patsalides attempted to defend his ministry’s actions, saying he had personally called for an investigation into the matter, the show was abruptly taken off air.

Deputy Attorney-general Papasavvas infamously charged the Health Ministry €17,000 for teeth implants and the case caused national outrage. He later said he would return the money to the state.

A Sigma spokeswoman yesterday said: “The show had simply exceeded its time and had to be interrupted to make way for the next programme.”

The advertisements did go on for five or six minutes before the next show, though this is not something all that unusual for a private channel. The incident didn’t go unnoticed by the local media though, with several papers – including Politis – making a passing comment.

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.