From: tzarros@ccs.carleton.ca (Theodore Zarros) Subject: News (in ENGLISH)- Thu, 15 Sep 1994 (Greek Press Office BBS, Ottawa). Athens News Agency Bulletin, September 13, 1994 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * Venizelos: Europe, US bid to ease crisis with Albania * Press Union protest * New bill on private radio, TV, Venizelos tells ANA in wide-ranging interview * FYROM attitude will determine outcome of problem, Venizelos reiterates * Pangalos: Greek EU presidency results positive, but insufficient * House Speaker tells EU counterparts of Albanian designs against ethnic minority * Pangalos to resign Thursday to launch mayorship campaign Venizelos: Europe, US bid to ease crisis with Albania ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Athens, 13/9/1994 (ANA): Greece said yesterday European and U.S-led diplomatic efforts were under way in a bid to ease a long-running crisis between Athens and Tirana. "American efforts to defuse the situation are continuing, while low-key and discrete concern for the issue is being displayed by the European side," government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos told reporters in Thessaloniki. He said non-governmental international organisations had also shown interest in the Greek-Albanian crisis, recently intensified by the conviction and jailing of five ethnic Greeks on charges of espionage and illegal weapons possession. Mr. Venizelos referred to a visit by Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Martino to Albania, yesterday, for talks with President Sali Berisha and Foreign Minister Alfred Serreqi. He said Mr. Martino would ask Tirana to take steps towards normalising relations with Greece by releasing the five ethnic Greeks, and convey also the message of the EU Foreign Ministers informal weekend talks in Usedom. Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias briefed the meeting on Greece's unswerving determination to continue blocking the release of EU aid to Albania, unless it improved its human rights record and released the convicted five ethnic Greeks from prison. He told the press the German European Union presidency would mediate to defuse tension between the two Balkan neighbours. Mr. Venizelos said Mr. Martino would not convey any "Greek proposals" to the Tirana government, noting that Athens had repeatedly voiced its attitude on safeguarding the ethnic Greek minority in southern Albania. According to a Reuters dispatch later from Tirana, Mr. Martino said the crisis between Greece and Albania was "deplorable" and called on the two countries to normalise relations. "The crisis between Greece and Albania seems to me a deplorable fact, and we have to do whatever is possible to overcome this situation," Mr. Martino told reporters in Tirana after meeting with the Albanian Foreign Minister, Mr. Serreqi. "We must do all we can in order to help overcome the crisis," he said. Meanwhile, President of the Republic Constantine Karamanlis and Mr. Papoulias yesterday briefly discussed developments in Greek-Albanian relations. Mr. Papoulias later told reporters the measures taken by the government against Albania would become much stronger in coming days "if the situation remains the same." Mr. Papoulias was referring to the release of the five ethnic Greeks convicted on charges of espionage. Athens has condemned the trial as a political fabrication aimed at intimidating its ethnic minority in Albania, and retaliated by blocking European Union aid to Albania and tightening border control. "Greece will toughen its stance against Albania if Albania provokes fresh tension," he said in a reply to a press question. "We favour dialogue and disengagement, but we cannot enter into talks, while five ethnic Greeks remain unjustly imprisoned," he added. Mr. Papoulias was due to have a meeting last night with Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou over Greek-Albanian relations. At a press conference in Thessaloniki on Sunday, the Prime Minister accused Tirana of trying to obliterate the ethnic Greek minority in Albania, cautioning that Greek diplomatic and economic measures against Albania were tough and would become even tougher. "The issue will cost heavily both Mr. Berisha and Albania," he noted. Today, Mr. Papoulias will discuss Greek-Albanian relations with Coalition of the Left and Progress (Synaspismos) party leader Nikos Constantopoulos. Greece and Albania have been at odds for years over the ethnic Greek minority, estimated by Athens at 300,000 and by Tirana at 60,000. Athens Press Union protest ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Athens, 13/9/1994 (ANA): In another development yesterday, the Athens Press Union (ESHEA) launched a strong protest with the International Press Federation over "unprecedented and brutal action by Tirana authorities in expelling and banning Greek journalist Takis Diamantis for five years from Albania." Mr. Diamantis was arrested in Tirana on Sunday by two policemen in civilian clothes. The Union also called on the Federation's Secretary General Aidan White to visit Athens, and be updated on developments in Albania since the opening of the trial. In an earlier statement on the trial, the Federation has "condemned strongly and directly the Albanian authorities for brutal action against journalists covering the trial." Meanwhile, in Bucharest, the Federation of Greeks in Romania issued an announcement denouncing the conviction and imprisonment of the five ethnic members of the political organisation, Omonia, adding a hope that the Romanian and international public opinion would not remain indifferent to such action which befits totalitarian states only. New bill on private radio, TV, Venizelos tells ANA in wide-ranging interview ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Athens, 13/9/1994 (ANA): The government hopes, by the end of the month, to table a bill in Parliament regulating matters pertaining to private radio and television, Press and Mass Media Minister Evangelos Venizelos said in an exclusive interview with ANA journalist Gerassimos Zarkadis. Mr. Venizelos, who also acts as government spokesman, said that his two-month-old Ministry would carry on with the policy introduced by the Press and Information Undersecretariat to deal with problems in the sector, and had already undertaken certain important initiatives with respect to printed media. The Press and Information Undersecretariat, which was attached to the Ministry to the Prime Minister's Office, had been made an autonomous ministry early July, together with a government reshuffle. Such initiatives included tabling a bill abolishing special penal regulations affecting the press (legislated during the Metaxas dictatorship), a move which has met with approval by most political parties and all press unions, Mr. Venizelos said. Moreover, in co-operation with the Finance Ministry, provincial newspapers debts had been written-off, while efforts were being made to resolve chronic problems faced mainly by the provincial press, including Athens and Thessaloniki dailies, in close contact with the press unions and the federation of press unions, the Minister explained. "I wish to stress, however, that legislative initiatives relating to the sphere of the printed press should be made with particular caution, in light of special constitutional safeguards, so that regulations might not be mistaken as a form of intervention or restriction (of freedom of the press)," Mr. Venizelos said. It follows government initiatives should "mainly aim at providing financial assistance to the press, and introducing rules of transparency enhancing press stature". Mr. Venizelos said he had accordingly written all Ministers and Cabinet members and, by extension, the public sector, requesting that the principle of proportionate equality be adhered to assigning advertising space or other form of projection on radio or television media, including newspapers. Moreover, fair distribution rules have been introduced in extending subsidies to the provincial press. As regards radio and television media, "our initiatives are much more intensive, since that is possible within the constitutional framework governing our mode of operation." For example, he said, agreement had been reached with local radio networks unions on conducting a comprehensive re-examination of all outstanding applications for subsidies and/or operating licenses. "We have introduced a system of criteria, a sort of point system, on which applications will be drafted. Such applications will be promptly examined by the National Radio-Television Council, based on criteria already agreed on and, naturally, a specific number of licenses will be assigned specified frequencies and broadcasting positions to be announced for each prefecture," the Minister explained. A similar system would also be used for private television, in which sphere "we will not, for the time being, allow development of a secondary market, a market of special services such as cable television, to avoid the same problems of chaos and illegality which had occurred with ordinary television," Mr. Venizelos said. He explained that two types of licenses had been granted: one for local, the other for nation-wide networks. The National Radio-Television Council had been requested by the Ministry to step up implementation of a European Union directive on "Television without Frontiers", which deals with four fundamental topics: advertisements -- the maximum number of advertising messages allowed per day and hour, as well as the maximum number of commercial breaks allowed for in broadcasting advertisements, distinction between an advertisement and a sponsorship, and the proportion of European productions and independent productions which a station is required to broadcast. The Press Ministry, Mr. Venizelos said, was currently engaged in elaborating the final stages of the draft of a bill regulating all above matters, as also consolidating separate legislation on radio and television, in order to enable the Greek media sector to move in concert with European standards. "We hope to table the bill in Parliament by the end of the month," the Minister said. Asked how he saw the trend towards concentration of the radio and television stations, which threatened small local stations with extinction to the benefit of major, nation-wide networks, Mr. Venizelos explained that media concentration was a major problem internationally. In Greece, he added, there were strict regulations dealing with the problem, but the aim remained to discover effective methods for implementing regulations and promptly pinpointing violations. It is recalled that a shareholder in a television station, or a relative of that person up to fourth degree kinship, cannot own a holding in another station, while an individual's share in a single station cannot exceed 25 per cent. As for state-owned national networks, ERT 1, 2 and 3, Mr. Venizelos said a plan for economic and management streamlining was being applied, as well as efforts for improvement of the quality of the networks' image. A network of relay stations was being completed while, for the first time, a national satellite policy was being applied which would enable viewership and improved quality broadcast. The long-term goal of that policy was acquisition of a Greek satellite to facilitate the country's radio and television transmission needs while, in short-term, the leasing of space in existing satellites enabled transmission to Greek communities around the world. At present, Mr. Venizelos said, the Ministry was in the process of selecting one out of available satellites on which to lease space. FYROM attitude will determine outcome of problem, Venizelos reiterates ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Athens, 13/9/1994 (ANA): Greece yesterday said developments in the Skopje issue hinged on the stance followed by the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). "If FYROM's intransigent and barren line continues, then there will be no developments," government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos told reporters in Thessaloniki, adding that the "Greek positions allow for normalisation of relations and the allocation of aid to Skopje." Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias told his EU partners over informal talks at the weekend in Usedom that Greece would continue to block the accession of FYROM to the Conference on Security and Co-operation in EUROPE (CSCE), unless FYROM changed its name, removed Greek symbols from its flag and amended its constitution containing expansionist designs against Greece. Last February Greece imposed trade sanctions against FYROM as retortion measures to counter Skopje intransigence. Pangalos: Greek EU presidency results positive, but insufficient ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Athens, 13/9/1994 (ANA): Transport Minister Theodoros Pangalos said yesterday the results of the third Greek European Union presidency were positive, but not sufficient. "The Greek presidency did not take any initiative regarding the European Union economic development to prevent multi-tier economic development," Mr. Pangalos told a seminar on the results of the third Greek EU Presidency organised by the Greek European Studies Centre. He said the Greek presidency had not undertaken a peaceful role in the Balkans either, although such an initiative would have enabled Greece to raise its credibility and deal effectively with threats. "The main political reason (for this) is that we have not succeeded in formulating a foreign policy based on strategy and coherence," Mr. Pangalos said, clarifying that he was referring to Greek political leadership as a whole. "Naturally, this is mainly the government's responsibility," he said. "But neither do I hear any coherent political advice from another source," he added, stressing that Greece's inability to make decisions was the "most acute form of malignancy" it suffered from. In another development yesterday, Mr. Pangalos said he would resign his post to run for Athens mayor in municipal elections next month. Main opposition New Democracy party later attacked Mr. Pangalos' earlier declarations, challenging him to state the reason why he had remained as Alternate Foreign Minister, since he felt Greece lacked a coherent foreign policy. House Speaker tells EU counterparts of Albanian designs against ethnic minority ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Athens, 13/9/1994: (ANA) President of the Parliament Apostolos Kaklamanis yesterday said Tirana was set on obliterating the Greek minority of Albania. Mr. Kaklamanis was speaking at a meeting of the Presidents of European Union National Parliaments, held in Bonn. "Albania brutally violates the religious and education rights of the members of the Greek minority," he told the meeting. Mr. Kaklamanis also referred to the trial of five ethnic Greeks on charges of spying for Greece and illegal arms possession, saying their confessions had been extracted under physical and mental torture. Mr. Kaklamanis appealed to the presidents of European Parliaments to take a step towards the release of the five convicted ethnic Greeks. Pangalos to resign Thursday to launch mayorship campaign ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Athens, 13/9/1994 (ANA): Transport and Communications Minister Theodoros Pangalos will leave his ministry on Thursday to contest the Athens mayorship in local elections due to be held in Greece on October 16. Mr. Pangalos said he planned to submit his resignation to Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou yesterday. He said he would be very pleased if Transport and Communications Under-Secretary Thanassis Tsouras, who he called a good and close associate, were to succeed him at the ministry. Mr. Pangalos termed the state prevailing in the various unions of Olympic Airways, Greece's national carrier, "unacceptable and corrupt", adding that the unions refuse to accept aligning their remuneration with average levels prevailing in European companies. "Olympic lacks money to pay staff salaries and this should be realised by all. In parallel, since it owes 550 billion dr. and about 378 million dollars, it runs the risk of having its assets impounded at any moment, should it violate the restructuring programme," Mr. Pangalos said. He said the government was determined to maintain Olympic running at any cost and all the staff should contribute to its survival. "It is a one-way road and whoever disagrees should opt for other alternatives (implying resignation)," he added. Mr. Pangalos called on Olympic's trade unionists not to take strike action and reject a draft law being processed by a special committee. Otherwise, he said, the company will be led to closure and as, a matter of fact, its duties will be ceded to private citizens.