The Council of State upheld the applications of KLC for the annulment of penalties imposed against the TV show Call for Cash

By virtue of the decisions no. 568 and 569/2011 the Council of State upheld that the administrative acts of the Greek National Council for Radio and Television (NCRTV) imposing fines against television stations amounting totally to 60.000 € with regard to the TV show Call for Cash were illegally founded and it annulled the relevant administrative acts. In particular, the Council of State accepted that the acts of the NCRTV were illegally reasoned, since the risk of misleading the television audience regarding the charge of the telephone call conducted by a mobile phone for the purpose of participating in the show was not substantiated. On the contrary, the content of the information was according to the Council of State in principle sufficient in order to prevent the risk of misleading the television audience. Furthermore, the Council of State, by virtue of a number of other decisions (no. 570, 571, 640, 641, 642/2011), upheld that NCRTV’s composition was illegal, when imposing other fines to television stations, amounting totally to 200.000 €, for the TV show Call for Cash, as well as when banning the said show. In particular the Council of State upheld that a member of the NCRTV had formed his/her opinion on the case in advance and did not provide the guarantees of unbiased judgment required by law, and thus the relevant administrative acts were annulled. KLC Law Firm has handled the cases before the NCRTV and subsequently wrote all the applications for annulment which were lodged before the Council of State.