Greek government blindly extends radio licenses for a 10th year [1]
Υποβλήθηκε από radiofono.gr [2] στις .
According to the Amendment 2071/41 12.05.2014 filed in the Ministry of Infrastructure bill for transport, telecommunications and public works, the government gives itself an extension of one more year (the tenth in a row) for granting new radio station licenses, but also for completion of licensing digital broadcast content providers. The amendment xtended the relevant deadlines of December 31, 2014 until December 31, 2015.
The adjustment refers to the radio stations of Attica (Athens) licensed with the authorization process initiated by Minister Dimitris Reppas in 2001, licenes which expired in 2005 for the first time. Then, the Ministry together with the ESR was obliged to launch new licensing process. Instead of new licenses, existing licenses of 2001 just got extensions for 10 consecutive years, with last-minute amendments injected into other laws, often approved late (after the expiration of the licenses). Athens radio stations in the year 2015 will continue to operate based on the licensing of 2001, although many of them have been sold and may have changed the content and the operating conditions for which they were originally licensed. Simultaneously, more "legally operating" radio stations were added as they took a posteriori "temporary certificate of legal operation" and some other got legalized by judicial decisions.
The regulation does not apply to radio stations outside Attica, anyway covered by certificates of legal operation based their operation in November 1999, which have no expiry date.
The status of the continuous extension of the radio license was judged as unconstitutional by the State Council. The last commitment of the Government on licensing radio was orally given by government representative Sofia Vooltepsi, which had announced that the process would proceed immediately after the announcement on the FM frequencies map in late September, which however has not yet occurred.