Athens News Agency: News in English, 05-05-17

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Govt pledges action to promote use of internet

[02] Minister of State attends meeting of European ministers of audiovisual media

[03] City of Athens honors Rogge, ATHOC chief Angelopoulos-Daskalaki

[01] Govt pledges action to promote use of internet

Addressing an event held at the Athens Metro station in Syntagma to celebrate the World Telecommunicatons Day, organised by the Transport and Communications ministry, the Greek PM stressed "we need to act quickly and to close the gap from other advanced countries in new technologies in the telecommunications sector".

Karamanlis, accompanied by Transport and Communications Minister Mihalis Liapis, visited the exhibition site showing the evolution of telecommunications from ancient times till nowadays.

Addressing the event, Liapis said the ministry planned a series of actions aimed to promote the use of internet in the country with lower prices and more use of broadband services.

The Greek minister stressed the country has a long way to go since average use of internet was 20 percent in Greece compared with 47 percent in Europe.

[02] Minister of State attends meeting of European ministers of audiovisual media

The meeting discussed the need to protect the European audiovisual industry, with emphasis on support for the training, production and distribution sectors.

Roussopoulos focused on the need to promote collaboration between European countries in order to take advantage of European cultural pluralism and so that countries with a limited geographic and language range could participate in productions and gradually become more competitive in this area.

The meeting also considered copyright and piracy issues and how this might be prevented. According to the Greek minister, there were three ways of stopping the flouting of copyright law: better policing, by using more advanced technology and by educating the public, especially young people in schools, that copyright violations and piracy are a crime and must be treated as such - possibly through a European-wide campaign.

After the meeting, Commissioner Reding said that she intended to call an informal meeting of ministers of the audiovisual media and education ministers in order to seek out effective ways of cooperating in order to fight copyright violations.

[03] City of Athens honors Rogge, ATHOC chief Angelopoulos-Daskalaki

Mayor Dora Bakoyannis bestowed the Gold Medal of the City of Athens to International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge, Athens 2004 Olympic Games Organising Committee (ATHOC) President Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki as well as former Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC) president and IOC executive committee member Lambis Nikolaou.

"The capital of Greece now confers on you the honor for all that you have done for the Olympic movement and spirit," Bakoyannis said.

On his part, the powerful IOC president reiterated that the Athens Games were a tremendous success, while noting that Greek organisers never lost their optimism during the stage of preparations, even in the face of concerns by the general public and media.

He also said Athens and Greece deserve kudos because they showed the country's modern face to the world.

ATHOC chief Angelopoulos underlined that the 2004 Games allowed the city and country to show their modern and ambitious side.

"It would be a pity if the Olympic Games of Athens remain simply a memory," she added.

Finally, Nikolaou said a significant share of the success belongs to the presidents of the country's local sports federations and to the Greek Olympic team's athletes.

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