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cannedmoose · Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 4:50 pm Post subject: Astra Radio - who owns it?

Folks, drawing on your local knowledge here... is Astra 92.8 actually owned by AKEL or is AKEL's involvement with the station limited to Takis Hadjigeorgiou being station director?

Also, if anyone knows of other radio stations owned by political parties, I'd be grateful if you can let me know... :D

erolz · Joined: 11 Aug 2005 Posts: 4195 Location: Kyrenia / Girne

Not sure if it any help

http://www.ejc.nl/jr/emland/cyprus.html#2

and the astra radio site at

http://www.astra.com.cy/

but it's all in greek - so I am not sure if they have an 'about us' section or any details on the ownership or relationship with AKEL if any.

This might be of use too

http://www.moi.gov.cy/moi/pio/pio.nsf/0/C111B7FD1A982578C2256D710021C3E2?OpenDocument

Though the website of The Cyprus Radio-Television Authority seems to be dead :(

cannedmoose · Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 5:06 pm Post subject:

Thanks Erol, I already visited their site thinking they'd have a nice little 'About us' section, but to no avail... it was simply a nice message from Mr. Hadjigeorgiou telling us about when the station was created. It sparked my suspicions because it kept referring to the station supporting workers' rights and I do recall reading a comment piece in Cyprus Mail a couple of years ago where they mentioned it was owned by AKEL.

Thanks for the other info, I'll check it out.

Crash Test Dummy · Joined: 25 Sep 2005 Posts: 4911 Location: London(ish)

moose aka

cannedmoose · Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 7:30 pm Post subject:

No, just trying to understand the murky world that is Cypriot politics... takes some doing... :shock:

Crash Test Dummy · Joined: 25 Sep 2005 Posts: 4911 Location: London(ish)

cannedmoose wrote: No, just trying to understand the murky world that is Cypriot politics... takes some doing... :shock:

cyprus is about as corrupt as you can get.

The Cyprus Motto : Its not who you are, Its who you know

cannedmoose · Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 7:44 pm Post subject:

Cyprus was 16th out of 25 EU countries on the Global Corruption perception index... it beat amongst others Italy and Greece.

Crash Test Dummy · Joined: 25 Sep 2005 Posts: 4911 Location: London(ish)

16th :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: we must be slipping

Bananiot · Joined: 13 Aug 2005 Posts: 1214 Location: Nicosia

Astra is owned by AKEL and Takis Hadjigeorgiou is its Director but of course he has little influence on its policy which is centrally decided by the all powerful Secretariat of the party. Takis came out openly for the "yes" vote during the referendum days and of course he became black listed along with some other AKEL deputies (Eleni Mavrou being one of them). It will be interesting to see if he is a candidate in May 2006.

Radio Sigma is owned by Hadjicostis who started as a fervent supporter of Klerides and his pragmatic policies but now has switched alliances and supports the rejectionist front.

ANT1 and its radio station are also supporting the rejectionist front and of course there is the government backed RIK which changes alliances according to the resident of the Presidential Palace.

Super spor FM is quite interesting. Its owned by Hasikos and the "Alitheia" group and besides its mainly sport agenda, does some political gigs topped by the 07.30 - 07.830 daily programme that is attracting a very large number of listeners. Its presented by two very funny blokes, Pampos Charalampous and Andreas Kounios who basically read the papers and take the micky out of Papadopoulos and his government.

cannedmoose · Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2005 12:01 am Post subject:

Thanks Bananiot, good stuff. Of course I'll take your word for it, but do you know of any sources which explicitly state that Astra is an AKEL mouthpiece?

Bananiot · Joined: 13 Aug 2005 Posts: 1214 Location: Nicosia

Let me check it out but I think AKEL does not function in this way. In fact, just to get an idea, it has a number of companies, registered for the law in the names of some of its faithful servants (Central Committee members who are on the pay roll of AKEL). I remember old Ziartides, he suddenly found out that he was the director of a number of companies and he knew nothing of this.

By the way, about 95% of the Central Committee members are full time, paid by AKEL members.

cannedmoose · Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2005 11:03 am Post subject:

Thanks Bananiot, any info you can find would be gratefully appreciated. I know that AKEL gets a significant % of its income from 'workers' companies like LOEL etc. as I've just finished reading a book by T.W. Adams written in 1971 which is the only book on AKEL that I could find. I know the individuals in the party have changed significantly since then, but the party structures seem to have remained relatively unchanged. Have to say that most of the material I've read on Cyprus is post-1974, so it was quite strange to read a Cyprus book that didn't immediately refer to the events of 1974. :D