Ever since the establishment of the Cyprus Republic, the CyBC had been used as the mouthpiece of the president and the government of the day. Although it likes to call itself a public broadcaster, it is in fact a state broadcaster run by the government through its appointees on the board of directors who in turn appoint the chief executive that is chosen by the government. As for the other executives, promoted from within the corporation, it is no secret that they have close links with some political party.
Although it is obliged by legislation to cover the activities of all the political parties and give them equal air-time, CyBC still operates as the personal vehicle of the president. In the 60s and 70s, almost all news programmes started with a report of an activity of Archbishop Makarios, regardless of its newsworthiness, practice that has been revived under the Nikos Christodoulides’ presidency. Every day we are bombarded with reports about the president – statements he made, meetings he had, telephone calls he made – which are always given top news priority.
Most people are accustomed to the cult of the president, although it is being promoted more heavily since Christodoulides came to office. In the last couple of weeks, however, something even more worrying happened. The CyBC management had decided to turn a novel by Stavros Christodoulou, that deals with events in Cyprus’ recent history, such as the Turkish invasion and the atrocities committed by the two communities among others into a 12-part television series.
The filming of the adaptation was unceremoniously cancelled by the CyBC board on the grounds that “the subject of the book is delicate and Cyprus society is not mature enough to face it”. Meanwhile, the president of the board, Giorgos Kendas, said he was “worried that the subject of the rape of the woman in 1974 will upset Cyprus society and people are not ready”. This is censorship. In democratic Cyprus of 2023, the government appointees on the CyBC board are deciding what we are ready and not ready to watch.
Has the board conducted a survey of the population and found that we are not mature enough to watch a TV series about our history. Of course it has not, but it has to use some unconvincing excuse to justify the censorship. In fact this board has proved with its decision to axe the show that it is unfit to run the public broadcaster of a democratic, pluralist society. To be fair, the CyBC is a state broadcaster, in all but name, which is probably why Kendas and his fellow directors felt duty-bound to act in this authoritarian way.
The book must deviate from the official state version of Cyprus’ modern history and therefore could not possibly be made into a series by the state broadcaster. The people are not ready, nor mature enough, to cope with a different version of history than the official one, according to the CyBC censors.
