An Irish MEP has warned that troika cutbacks forced on some EU member states are jeopardising freedom of speech and diversity of media ownership.
Ireland East MEP Nessa Childers was commenting on reports from Greece that the country’s state-owned broadcaster ERT is to be shut down and re-opened with only a fraction of its existing 2,800 employees. The EU, ECB and IMF troika has told Greece to fire 2,000 public servants by the end of the year.
Childers said it is “unacceptable that any EU member state would be left without a public service broadcaster because of financial cutbacks imposed on it by the troika”.
She added that the move has “serious negative implications for freedom of speech and diversity of media ownership throughout the EU, including Ireland.”
Childers called on the Government to immediately publish its proposed Consumer and Competition Bill, which is designed to ensure diversity of ownership of media organisations.
