Audit Office queries state grants to the media

State grants to the media must be rationalised so as to avoid potentially creating a situation of patronage, the Audit Office has said.

In a just-released special report on the Press and Information Office, as well as on state financial assistance to the media, the watchdog notes that in 2017 and 2018 the printed press received from the state €544,500 in aggregate.

The method of disbursement “is not commensurate with international best practices for supporting the mass media, does not serve the existence of a truly free press, but rather in the manner the grants are given, as if by favour from the government, it creates conditions undermining the free press and dependency on the government of the day.”

It goes on to recommend the devising of a plan regulating state moneys paid to the media. The plan should be based on one, or a combination, of the four methods outlined in a report titled “Official Development Assistance for Media: Figures and Findings” issued by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Centre for International Media Assistance.

Alternatively, media outlets might be offered tax easements instead.

Whatever method is used, parliament should exercise oversight over the suggested disbursement plan as well as the total grant amount.

The report flags among others a grant of €80,000 paid to a press distribution agency, “which does not appear to serve the purpose of supporting a free press”.

On the Press and Information Office (PIO), the Audit Office highlights the non-use of €268,579 allocated in the 2018 budget to raise ‘awareness’ about the Cyprus problem.

It also tracked two tenders that concerned the setting up of a website for the PIO and the design of an awareness campaign on road safety, both of which contracts were awarded with “summary proceedings.”

The report found that of eight PIO employees transferred to other ministries, two did not punch in and out of work or otherwise record what time they got to the workplace.

 

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.