Writer Christos Chomenidis resigns from NERIT, citing ‘direct government intervention’
Christos Chomenidis resigned from the supervisory board of NERIT on Monday, citing “direct government intervention” in the state broadcaster’s decision not to air live a speech by opposition leader Alexis Tsipras at the Thessaloniki International Fair on Saturday.
In a letter addressed to the president of the Board of Supervisors, Theodoros Fortsakis, Chomenidis, a novelist and lawyer, questioned the independence of the board and suggested that it is being undermined by “decisions taken elsewhere, by others.”
The issue, Chomenidis said, “is not about whether the speech and the press conference of the main opposition leader at the Thessaloniki should have been broadcast live by NERIT. It is about the direct intervention of the government, which challenges the ability of the president and managing director of NERIT to deal with issues that belong exclusively under the purview of a national – and one that is independent of parties and political officials – broadcaster.”
Chomenidis also added that the decision not to air Tsipras’s address “is a heavy blow” to efforts to “set the foundations for a new type of public broadcaster, which will not be supervised, will not be led and will not be manipulated by respective governments.”
Chomenidis’s resignation comes in the wake of those by NERIT’s CEO Antonis Makrydimitris and his deputy Rodolfos Moronis over the same issue on Thursday.
