Christodoulides: Cyprus does not support spying on journalists

President Nikos Christodoulides said on Saturday that under no circumstances does Cyprus support spying on journalists, following reports that the government favours an EU regulation that would allow members of the press to be monitored.

In response to a question during an interview with Euronews about the discussions on the law for the protection of journalists and their sources and the attitude of Cyprus, Christodoulides, who served as a government spokesman, expressed particular sensitivity to the issues of journalists and the smooth functioning of their work.

He added that he brought the issue up with the president of the EU parliament, as it was not on the agenda for discussion.

Commenting further, he said that when asking the intention of the EU law, he also gave Cyprus’ position, which is that there is no intention to spy on journalists, and that is Nicosia’s approach.

On Tuesday, the government sought to downplay the notion that it supports a clause in an EU bill currently under discussion that would allow European governments to spy on the communications of journalists.

Government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis was responding to an article run by Phileleftheros, reporting that Nicosia backs the contentious Article 4 in the European Media Freedom Act.

Article 4 contains a loophole allowing for the use of spyware on media service providers, their employees or family members where “the deployment is justified, on a case-by-case basis, on grounds of national security and is in compliance with Article 52(1) of the Charter and other Union law or the deployment occurs in serious crimes investigations.”

The issue has been condemned by the media ethics committee and the bar association, as well as the journalists union in Cyprus.