The Minister – Supreme television leader Mr. Pappas might be celebrating about the 11 applications for a television license that were submitted, but based on the profile of the new candidates, the future of the news in our country is not encouraging.

The whole process, from sidestepping the Constitutions – and which the Council of State is examining – so that the minister can have ultimate control of the process, to the number of licenses that he decided on his own, have undermined that credibility and legitimacy of tender in advance.

But the government is not really concerned about this, from the moment they rose to power they have aimed to control and manipulate the news. By any means, exercising power and using willing servants they try to gag or even shut down any media that criticizes them. They are implementing this tactic as a pretext for the necessary regulation of the media.

The minister-tv leader claims that his intention with the licenses is to break the triangle of vested interests between the media, banks and politicians. Only it is plain to see that the new candidates for a television broadcasting license are people with powerful financial (and not only) interests, with the government contracts, outstanding issues with justice and connections to the governing party.

Any reservations one may have about the media today aside, the indications on the aesthetic, cultural and political beliefs of the new candidates will result in much worse situations. The pluralism of providing information, which has already been undermined by the number of licenses, is destined to suffer another blow from the government-manipulated licensing process.

Despite the cries about vested interests, controlling the media has always been the ultimate desire of politicians, especially when they are in power. No government however, despite the efforts, has made such a direct attempt for control like the SYRIZA government. Diversity in the news is one of the conquests of democracy.

However many limitations Mr. Pappas and his buddies impose, they cannot gag those who defend the freedom of expression, the right and obligation of the media to criticize those in power. History has shown that governments come and go, but the free press survives…

TO VIMA