Mea culpa from CyBC after Akel blunder

The Board of public broadcaster CyBC said on Wednesday it recognised the station’s mistake in interrupting live statements by Akel general secretary Andros Kyprianou during the parliamentary elections on Sunday night.

The board said it was taking all necessary measures to avoid similar incidents in the future.

Akel said on Monday it would boycott CyBC in retaliation for what it says was biased coverage, after the public broadcaster interrupted a live transmission of Kyprianou, who was about to give a statement on the elections, and moved instead to cover live comments by Disy chief Averof Neophytou from the election campaign headquarters of Nicos Nicolaides, who had just won the Limassol mayorship. This was despite the fact that CyBC had already broadcast statements by both Neophytou and Nicolaides, Akel said.

In a letter addressed to CyBC chairman Thanasis Tsokkos,  Akel spokesman Stefanos Stefanou had said party cadres have been instructed not to participate in any radio or television debates hosted by the station. The embargo would last until CyBC “has demonstrated clear signs that it is implementing a code of journalistic conduct”.

He had said that this was only the latest in a series of occasions where CyBC had engaged in slanted coverage, at the expense of Akel.

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.