2005 Greek State Television Bans Program That Exposes Persecution Against Macedonian Minority

Greek State Television Bans Program
That Exposes Persecution Against Macedonian Minority

March 23, 2005

Greek Member State Committee of EBLUL
Parisis Athanasios

The Greek Member State Committee (GMSC) of the European Bureau for Less Used Languages (EBLUL) is deeply concerned about an incident that took place on Greek State Television (ERT) and constitutes a flagrant abuse of the core principles of respect to diversity and multiculturalism.

GMSC was informed that NET, the 2nd channel of ERT, has indefinitely postponed the broadcast of Sunday's (21.3.2005) "Taxidevontas stin Ellada" (Travelling in Greece), dedicated to the Florina region of W. Macedonia.

According to the presenter of the show, the official justification for this decision was that in the edited (ready-to-air) version some inhabitants of villages in the region said on camera that their mother tongue was Macedonian and that this language was completely banned from the Greek state for decades. The ERT directors obviously concluded that such public statements could found claims for existence of a linguistic minority that Greece does not officially recognize and decided to ban the broadcast.

GMSC of EBLUL categorically condemns such an action, especially when it comes from an EU member state that only a few months ago hosted the Olympic Games under the motto "Celebrating cultures, celebrating diversity". Furthermore, this incident happened during the European Week Against Racism.

Once again Greece chooses not to respect the basic right of its own citizens to freely express their opinions and continues the policy of extremely limited and absolutely selective presentation of cultural and linguistic diversity by state-owned media.

Athanasios Parisis
President of GMSC of EBLUL

top of page