EVERYONE seems to have been shocked to hear that two local television stations had demanded payment in order to give air-time to a parliamentary candidate.
The revelation was made by a DISY Limassol deputy, Andreas Themistocleous who claimed that one television station had asked for €3,000 and another for €5,000 to invite candidates to appear on their election shows.
The matter is to be discussed at the House, while the chairman of the Cyprus Broadcasting Authority has asked the deputy to submit his allegations in writing so these could be investigated.
A newspaper yesterday published a letter from a television station, which allegedly included a price-list for appearances on news shows, chat shows etc. The boss of a Limassol TV station meanwhile, has already challenged Themistocleous to name the stations which had demanded payment.
Putting candidates on television for money does seem corrupt and might be against the rules of the Broadcasting Authority, but it is one way of giving them access to television audiences. Is the method whereby the TV station boss, invites only the candidates that he likes any fairer?
There are national stations which allegedly invite only deputies who enjoy the favour of the respective owners, while all others are barred.
Perversely, payment for air-time is a fairer selection system as it gives all candidates access to television audiences, and does away with the blatant discrimination practised by a few station owners.
Practically speaking, it is not feasible to give TV air-time to the hundreds of candidates standing for election so what should be done? The idea that all candidates should be treated equally by stations cannot be put into practice, so payment might be a solution, as long as the TV show is obliged to make it clear that participants have paid to appear in specific shows.
Such an arrangement might give rise to claims that wealthy candidates have an unfair advantage. But they have an unfair advantage also because they could afford to put their faces on billboards, send out thousands of leaflets, take out adverts in newspapers and invite potential voters to cocktail parties.
A limit has also been placed on how much a candidate spends on his campaign, but does anybody ever check?
As for a television station that is prepared to take money to put candidates or deputies on its news shows, its corruption and dishonesty would eventually be exposed, because such practices are rarely kept a secret for long.
And loss of viewers would be a much bigger punishment than anything the Broadcasting Authority would impose.
