(GHM/IFEX) – An evangelical radio station in Athens was forcibly closed and a retired pastor jailed, according to a 3 December 1999 press release from the Fellowship of Free Evangelical Churches in Greece and reported on 14 December by the organisation Human Rights Without Frontiers. On 2 December, twelve police officers raided the administrative offices […]
(GHM/IFEX) – An evangelical radio station in Athens was forcibly closed and a retired pastor jailed, according to a 3 December 1999 press release from the Fellowship of Free Evangelical Churches in Greece and reported on 14 December by the organisation Human Rights Without Frontiers.
On 2 December, twelve police officers raided the administrative offices of the non-profit association “Biblical Circle”, which manages “Channel Station 2000” radio, and arrested 73-year-old retired pastor Lakis Regas, who was working as a technician on the premises when police arrived. Regas spent the night in jail. He was released the next day by a judge’s order.
The police also wanted to seize the station’s transmitters, but they were located elsewhere. Police eventually took away only the main satellite disc link and shut down the radio station.
“We have been operating and proclaiming the Good News of Christ for eleven years without any problem,” Thanos Karbonis, the station’s director, said. “Channel Station 2000 is very fruitful. It has brought many people to Christ.”
Greek authorities accused Channel Station 2000 of not having the proper operating licence, but it is well known that no private radio station has ever managed to get one. GHM believes that the Greek Orthodox Church is behind the “censorship operation”. In the days preceding the police raid, the church officially denounced the station for “dangerous proselytism.”
Channel Station 2000 has also been charged with disturbing the frequencies of nearby naval forces, but specialists have reportedly checked the claim and proved it to be unfounded. However, a trial is planned for 31 January 2000, on the charge.
In 1994, the government shut down Greece’s only evangelical television station, Hellas 62, claiming that the station had not paid its electricity bill, an accusation denied by the station’s managers. Hellas 62 had begun broadcasting in 1992, despite strong opposition from the Greek Orthodox Church. Authorities at the Ministry of Transports later claimed the action was taken because the station did not hold a licence, which was then and still is the case for all private radio and TV stations in the country. There is widespread belief that the Orthodox Church hierarchy had prompted that action too.
“Nothing has changed since then,” Karbonis told Compass, “and the radio station will not be allowed to transmit its message of love and peace at Christmas if authorities are not put under pressure very soon by the European Parliament and sister churches abroad.”
Background Information
Anti-Protestant sentiments seem to be on the rise in Greece. For the first time in sixty-eight years, the government has not renewed the permit of the Evangelical Churches to operate their Children’s Campground, which is used by Greek evangelical children and for refugee children from the Balkans and other countries.
There are approximately 16,000 to 18,000 Protestants in Greece, mainly evangelical and Pentecostals. Some 130 congregations are concentrated mainly in Athens, Thessaloniki and Patras.
Selective targeting of minority media for unlicenced operation has also marked Turkish minority language station Radio Isik. The station’s owner, Abdulhalim Dede, was put on trial in 1997 for his radio’s operation in 1994 and 1995, but he was eventually acquitted.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to authorities:
– denouncing the radio closure and the jailing of its technician
– demanding that charges be dropped against the station
– asking that minority media not be targeted for selective imposition of the law against unlicenced broadcasting as long as the state fails to issue licences to radio and television stations
– asking for the acceleration of the procedure to issue such licences that have been pending since 1989 when non-state media were first authorised to broadcast
Appeals To
APPEALS TO:George Papandreou
Foreign Minister
Athens, Greece
Fax: +30 1 368 1433Dimitris Reppas
Minister of Press and Information
Athens, Greece
Fax: +30 1 360 6969Evangelos Yannopoulos
Minister of Justice
Athens, Greece
Fax : +30 1 775 5835Michalis Chrysohoidis
Minister of Public Order
Athens, Greece
Fax: +30 1 691 7944Please copy appeals to GHM.
