Greek lawmakers fued over media licensing law

The atmosphere was tense when Greek lawmakers met to discuss the new media licensing law on Friday morning. Discussion on the modifications submitted by the Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) government on Thursday evening met with disagreement over the way in which the number of channels will be defined. The new law outlines the licensing system for private television and provides for the system to undergo a comlete overhaul. It is part of the left-wing government’s pledge to take on “media oligarchs” by, among other things, detailing how licenses will be issued, how long they will be valid and when they will be revoked.

The amendment to the law however caused the start of altercations between the government and opposition parties. Socialist PASOK MP Andreas Loverdos turned to State Minister Nikos Pappas and said: “You are not the minister of North Korea and we will not allow a minister to turn the Parliament into a coup d’etat regime, to turn the country into a country that has no relationship with rights.”

Pappas stood up to complain, but Loverdos said: “You are useless. Sit down. Shame on you. You are useless. Speak well to me. You can’t bully here. We’ve put up with you for five years. You don’t scare us!”