Cyprus-Forum.com

by **zan** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 1:52 am

Online petition to protest CyBC ‘nationalism’
By Stefanos Evripidou
THE CYPRUS Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) has come under ‘online’ fire from a group of citizens accusing the channel of airing nationalistic propaganda in an attempt to misinform and divide the people of Cyprus.

Cypriot bloggers have taken the initiative to circulate an online petition, which calls on signatories to condemn the “divisive propaganda” of the state broadcaster. So far, just over 270 signatures have been collected mostly from Greek Cypriots living in Cyprus and abroad.

The petition, written by Yiannis Ioannides from Limassol, charges the CyBC with strong undercurrents of nationalistic propaganda and misinformation which “purposefully and selectively poisons the consciences of Greek Cypriots through news referring to the Turkish Cypriot side”.

The petitioners accuse CyBC of adopting extreme elements in its reporting that systematically cultivate the view that there is no common ground between the two communities on the island and that freedom of movement to and from the north is a bad thing.

The aim is to strengthen the hate and adversarial nature of the relationship between Greek and Turkish Cypriots and encourage the view that the two communities cannot co-exist, claimed the petition.

The petition refers to a recent example of ‘distorted’ and ‘presidential palace-friendly’ news reporting by the CyBC. A Turkish Cypriot poet Nese Yasin went on CyBC’s bicommunal programme ‘BIZ’ last month to report that she was being hounded by nationalistic elements in the north for writing a book on a love affair between a Greek Cypriot man and a Turkish Cypriot woman. After the book was published in 2002, Yasin became the subject of abuse by ultra-nationalist media in the north and Turkey, mainly the far-right wing newspaper Volkan and Rauf Denktash’s circle, which accused her of being a ‘traitor and a prostitute’. She claimed the backlash to the book had intensified recently with public comments against her turning into a form of ‘very open and vulgar sexual harassment’

According to the petition however, the CyBC reported the story on its main news bulletin claiming ‘Nese Yasin tells CyBC that her life is being threatened by the Talat regime’. News anchor Emilia Kenevezou reportedly spoke of ‘moving charges of intellectual terrorism perpetrated by the Talat regime’.

Yasin had told the Cyprus Mail last month that the Turkish Cypriot community and its leader Mehmet Ali Talat had been openly supportive of her, despite attracting much criticism from Turkey for doing so. She also told the paper she was very upset with the way CyBC distorted the facts to point the finger at Talat.

The report evidently irked a number of Greek Cypriots also who have signed the petition which states: “We Greek Cypriots who sign this protest refuse to play the propaganda game of CyBC and those in the circle of the presidential palace, who insist on division, cultivating a negative climate which intensified after the opening of checkpoints in 2003, with the obvious aim of preventing reunification of our place.”

The undersigned state they will not remain apathetic to ‘tax-funded propaganda’.
Many of the signatories made their own comments calling on the state broadcaster to stop misinforming the public and cultivating nationalism. “Shame on us, for God’s sake we must stop this,” said one petitioner.

The petition can be found at http://www.petitiononline.com/cyblogs1/petition.html.
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