THE EUROPEAN Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has rejected as ‘inadmissible’ and ‘manifestly ill-founded’ Sigma’s complaint that its freedom of expression had been violated by the Cyprus Radio and Television Authority (CRTA).
The CRTA issued 27 decisions against Sigma and imposed fines for the violation of radio and television laws between 2000 and 2002.
The various violations included news programmes lacking objectivity, racist and discriminatory remarks in an entertainment series, product placement in a comedy series and placement of sponsors’ names during news programmes.
One episode of an entertainment series had characters commenting on Paphos as “a whores’ town” with thousands of prostitutes. “All of the Greek (kalamaroudes), which we imported then, like we import Russian women nowadays,” one of the characters said.
Another character said that “in the old times, in Limassol it was all Arabs, Phoenicians, houllou, ya habbibi, all of them. Most of them were darker than chocolate…”
Sigma was handed a fine amounting to the equivalent of €3,450 for that episode.
The ECHR ruled against Sigma, saying the fine was appropriate bearing in mind “the repeated violations by (Sigma) of the relevant provisions in other episodes in the same series.”
In another case Sigma made public the identity of a light drug user who had requested anonymity.
On a different occasion the channel, owned by the DIAS group, broadcast the name of a car accident victim without knowing whether the relatives had been informed. It was also found to have broadcast one-sided stories, and illustrated in detail how to prepare and consume drugs during the ‘family zone.’
Sigma paid the fines by the CRTA between 2001 and 2008 but took the case to the Supreme Court challenging 25 of those decisions and lodging an additional complaint against having to pay a licence fee (which state broadcaster Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) does not.
When the Supreme Court rejected Sigma’s appeal in 2004, Sigma appealed to the ECHR claiming it was treated unfairly. The ECHR upheld the Supreme Court’s ruling.
Sigma has three months to appeal the latest decision by referring the case to the Grand Chamber of the Court.
The Grand Chamber will decide whether the case merits further examination. If not the court decision will be final against Sigma.
CRTA head Andreas Petrides yesterday refused to comment on any outstanding cases against radio and television channels in Cyprus, due to a “lack of complete picture.”
But “hundreds of thousands of euros in fines are currently pending collectively,” he added.
