Government to submit provision suspending TV license law
State Minister Nikos Pappas said on Monday that the government would later submit in Parliament a provision that effectively suspends an earlier law transferring the authority for conducting an auction for television licenses from the National Broadcasting Council (ESR) to Pappas.
In comments to Real FM, Pappas said the law had transferred the authority from the ESR to him because objections by the political opposition, notably conservative New Democracy, had prevented the cross-party ESR from convening.
Pappas said the government would proceed with "an overall change" of its law for the licensing of nationwide TV stations as soon as the Council of State issues its reasoning for a recent ruling deeming the TV auction to be unconstitutional.
"At the moment, we are all breaking the law, because the regime of the temporary license has not been extended following a decision by the Council of State in 2010," Pappas said.
The minister called on ND, ahead of a meeting of Parliament speakers on the subject on Monday, to determine which aspects of the TV license law it wants to see abolished.
