|
|
|
Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 99-11-06
CONTENS
[01] Top judge calls for laws to restrain media harassment of suspects
[02] Market continues record-smashing march despite suspensions
[03] Don't forget to strap on your helmet
[04] Officials ponder crackdown on Japanese car radios
[05] CyTA slashes cost of overseas calls
[06] Taxi strikers stick to their guns
[01] Top judge calls for laws to restrain media harassment of suspects
George Psyllides
THE President of the Supreme Court said yesterday that he would ask the
government to pass legislation to protect the rights of suspects being
brought before a court.
Supreme Court President Judge George Pikis said is seeking new
regulations to protect suspects, defendants and witnesses from media
targeting during their arraignment.
Pikis said the Supreme Court would seek through law to prohibit the
media from taking pictures or television footage of suspects and
defendants being taken to court.
"The issue has concerned us for a while now, not within the framework
of our legal status, but in the framework of securing those conditions
that allow easy access to court, and safeguarding the values of justice
in the place where it is delivered," said Pikis.
However, Attorney-general Alecos Markides yesterday suggested
self-regulation by the media might be more appropriate. "We should
avoid legal constraints. The media should have their own code to
follow," Markides said.
"Personally I believe that I have been liberal enough toward mass media
prosecutions because I believe in the public's right to be informed. At
the same time, however, it is no secret that I believe that the media
have exceeded the accepted limits, especially recently, with reporters
attempting to ask questions that were tormenting for the suspects,"
said Markides.
Photographers and cameramen regularly mob suspects and defendants as
they go in and out of court, with television reporters often
questioning suspects on the courthouse steps.
[02] Market continues record-smashing march despite suspensions
By Hamza Hendawi
THE CYPRUS Stock Exchange's all-share index jumped to its fifth
consecutive all-time high yesterday on a relatively low volume caused
by the suspension of five brokerages.
The index rose by 3.55 per cent to close at 680.14, with all seven
sectors of the market finishing in positive territory. Yesterday's
rise took to 16.45 per cent the market's gains this week.
The trading and manufacturing sectors were the day's best performers,
with their sub-indices rising by 7.57 per cent and 6.84 per cent
respectively.
Woolworth, heading for a possible share split and a rights issue, was
up 52 cents to close at £6.87, while Orphanides Supermarkets, due to
open its first hypermarket in Nicosia today, notched up 66 cents to
close at £5.38.
Woolworth's sister company CTC -- both are controlled by the Nicos
Shacolas Group -- remained unchanged at £4.92.
Keo, the Limassol-based beverages conglomerate, was up 7.5 cents to
close at £5.77 following a company announcement that it was laying off
61 workers as part of a restructuring scheme. The company has a
workforce of 622. It made scores of workers redundant last year as a
result of its modernisation programme.
The banks, the market's backbone, attracted less that usual business
yesterday, but held their ground against a wave of profit-taking
sparked by the shift of investors to less expensive but upwardly mobile
stocks.
The Bank of Cyprus was up 24.5 cents to close at £10.97, while Hellenic
Bank rose for the second successive day, closing at £4.87. Popular
Bank, which emerged largely unscathed from the week's pressures, was
down by only 3.5 cents to close at £12.94.
Yesterday's suspension of five brokerages -- Share Link, Severis &
Athienitis, Expresstock, Benchmark and Touch Shares -- was the latest
in the exchange's get-tough campaign against brokers who fail to meet
deadlines for processing transactions.
The exchange's hard line approach on offending brokerages is aimed at
avoiding a repeat of the summer's events, when a mountain of
unprocessed deals forced the market to close its doors on three
occasions. The most recent closure, in September, lasted an entire
month.
Brokers, however, see the exchange's frequent suspensions as
unnecessarily heavy-handed and maintain that the exchange must own up
to its own part in the creation of the backlog problem. They also find
that the exchange's policy of informing a brokerage of its suspension
shortly before trading gets under way is unacceptable.
[03] Don't forget to strap on your helmet
By Martin Hellicar
NO DOUBT prompted by the imposition of stiff new fines for
non-compliance, local moped riders would appear to have taken on board
the 'wear your helmet' message.
From November 1, moped riders must wear
helmets, and risk a £30 on-the-spot fine if caught without one.
The Cyprus Mail went out onto the streets
of Nicosia yesterday to see what impact this new legislation was
having.
The results of our spot-check were impressive: of 115 mopeds sighted,
only eight (or seven per cent of the total count) were driven by
persons not wearing a helmet.
A road safety success story, it would appear, but there is a catch - or
the absence of a catch, rather.
Twenty-four of the helmeted riders spotted on the streets yesterday had
failed to fasten their chin-straps. In other words, 22 per cent (more
than one-in-five) of moped riders were wearing their helmet in a way
that would make it useless in the event of an accident.
Add up those not wearing a helmet to those not fastening their helmet
catches, and fully 27 per cent (almost one-in-three) of moped riders
were riding with heads unprotected.
Police are convinced that helmets save lives.
They believe the lives of 10 moped riders killed on the roads over the
past four months would have been saved had the amendment forcing all
motorbike riders to wear helmets come into effect in early July as
scheduled. All ten deaths concerned moped riders without helmets.
The amendment was shelved for four months following an Akel-backed
motion to postpone.
Akel argued that helmets were too hot to wear in the summer. The party
insists helmets would not have saved the lives of the 10 moped riders
killed since then.
Riders of larger motorbikes have long been required to wear helmets by
law.
[04] Officials ponder crackdown on Japanese car radios
By Martin Hellicar
THE STATE is thinking of inspecting thousands of second hand Japanese
cars in an effort to track down and remove radios capable of tuning
into army and police frequencies.
The House Defence committee - which examined the radio issue on
Thursday - has expressed fears that national security could be
compromised by people using radios in some Japanese cars to listen in
on National Guard and police communications.
Communications Minister Averof Neophytou was yesterday keen to show
that he was on dealing with the issue.
"Since October 17, with instructions from the Communications Ministry
and notification to the customs department, we do not approve the
import of any vehicle which has in it a radio with frequencies between
76 and 90 MHs," Neophytou said.
But he admitted that, as second hand Japanese cars have been flooding
the market since 1995, there were likely to be thousands of cars on the
roads with radios capable of tuning into the "forbidden" frequencies.
"A problem remains about what to do about the thousands of second hand
cars already on the roads. It's a real problem," the minister said.
The matter had been considered at a meeting at the ministry yesterday,
he said.
Neophytou said one possibility was to inspect all cars that might have
such radios.
"One suggestion - and it would need the Attorney-general's approval -
is to call all such cars for inspection so as to see if they have such
radios and remove them, if this is legally possible," he said.
The local car market has been swamped with cheap second hand Japanese
vehicles in recent years.
But the recently established Association of second hand car importers
insisted yesterday that the whole matter was being blown out of all
proportion.
Association chairman Michalis Constantinou said importers were being
unfairly branded as "criminals" when they had done nothing wrong.
"How can deputies come out and talk about stopping an illegality. What
illegality? No one ever said we were doing anything illegal,"
Constantinou protested.
Any radio could be converted to receive frequencies of 76 to 90 MHs "in
a minute," he insisted.
There were "plenty" of such radios in the occupied areas, which the
state could do nothing about, Constantinou added.
Furthermore, he said, the army and police used coded transmissions, so
no one tuning in would be able to decipher them.
Constantinou claimed the whole matter was being exaggerated in a
deliberate effort to increase sales for radio dealers, who would have
to replace "suspect" devices ripped out of cars.
[05] CyTA slashes cost of overseas calls
THE PRICE of making a call to a number of overseas destinations is
being slashed from Monday, the Telecommunications Authority (CyTA)
announced yesterday.
Charges for calls to Britain, the US, Germany, Russia and Greece were
reduced earlier in the year, and now it is the turn of other
countries.
Calls to Australia and Canada go down from 97.5 to 50 cents a minute.
Calling South Africa will cost 50 cents a minute rather than the
current £1.14. Calls to France and Italy will cost 30 cents a minute
instead of 43 and 37 cents respectively.
Charges for calls to Lebanon and Israel will cost 25 cents a minute,
rather than 33.9 cents a minute.
The cost of calling these destinations on a mobile phone will only come
down after December 1.
[06] Taxi strikers stick to their guns
By George Psyllides
THE SERVICE taxi strike entered its fifth day yesterday, with opposing
sides sticking to their guns.
Drivers from five taxi offices who on Monday merged into the umbrella
Pancyprian Service Taxi Company have been on strike since that day.
The drivers are demanding a collective agreement that gives all drivers
the same rights and provides in particular for provident funds.
Trade Unions said yesterday the strike would continue because of the
new company's unwillingness to accept its staff's rights, including
provident funds, which unions insist are not negotiable.
The Unions warned that if the employers did not change their stance,
drivers would escalate their action.
The General Manager of the Pancyprian Service Taxi Company, Andreas
Papadopoulos, yesterday invited strikers to talks, saying, "we cannot
solve problems with strikes."
Papadopoulos told a press conference that the company couldn't possibly
accept to pay provident funds at a rate of 3.75 per cent from November
1.
"A provident fund will be paid in a few months, depending on the
company's financial standing," said Papadopoulos.
"The company had no obligation to offer employment to anyone from the
five taxi companies that merged to create a new company. Nevertheless,
we felt it was our ethical obligation to offer those who needed to be
employed the same working conditions," he added.
Papadopoulos expressed his disappointment with the strike, but said
that the company had to go ahead with its business.
"I'm sorry for the current situation, but the company has an obligation
toward its shareholders and the public to function effectively, and it
will hire personnel if necessary to begin working," he said.
© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1999
|
