Television, magazines, and newspapers are all operated by both state-owned and for-profit corporations which depend on advertising, subscription, and other sales-related revenues.
The power-sharing agreement among Turkish and Greek communities collapsed in 1963 after Makarios' attempt at pushing through Constitutional amendments.
[3] The 1974 failed Greek coup triggered the Turkish military intervention and resulted in the division of the island.
The partition removed the Turkish population from the Greek Cypriots' political sphere, and media controls were slowly relaxed.
This right includes freedom to hold opinions and receive and impart information and ideas without interference by any public authority and regardless of frontiers.»[4]These are generally respected in practice by the government.
[5] Cypriot and foreign journalists have the right to protect their sources and not to give testimony without liability, unless when the published information concerns a criminal offence.
[4] A right to reply exists for persons, organisations or public institutions that are named or indirectly referred to in a report or article, if they consider it as untrue or misleading.
[6] In 2015 a bill criminalizing denial of war crimes recognised by the Parliament (punished with prison terms of up to five years and a €10,000 fine) raised concerns (e.g. by the OSCE RFoM) about compliance with international freedom of expression standards.
[7] The law protects press freedom in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and internet access is not restricted.
[11] The print press in the Republic of Cyprus include 7 daily newspapers and 31 weeklies, often linked to political parties.
[14] Non-EU citizens require a permit from the Minister of the Interior to publish a newspaper or a magazine in Cyprus.
The Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation charter mandates a diverse radio programme with national coverage.
The Republic of Cyprus currently uses the PAL colour system, and has converted terrestrial transmissions to digital on 1 July 2011, in line with EU policy.
The analogue switch-off has led to several local TV stations shutting down for being unable to sustain the costs of compulsory nationwide digital transmission.
CytaVision and PrimeTel both offer digital TV through IPTV transmission and Cablenet through its privately owned cable network (in certain urban areas).
[citation needed] Bayrak (BRT) is the state television of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
[23] BRT is also the oldest Turkish Cypriot TV channel, established as a radio station in 1963, and launched its first television broadcast in 1976.
Several private television and radio stations also broadcast in Northern Cyprus, many of which rebroadcast programming from Turkey.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, George Filis produced and directed Gregoris Afxentiou, Etsi Prodothike i Kypros (Cyprus Betrayal), and The Mega Document.
As of the year 2000, the annual amount set aside in the national budget stands at Cy Pounds 500,000 (about 850,000 Euros).
The first was I Sphagi tou Kokora (1992), completed in 1996, Hellados (And the Trains Fly to the Sky, 1995), which is currently in post-production, and Costas Demetriou's O Dromos gia tin Ithaki (The Road to Ithaka, 1997) which premiered in March 2000.
[5] ADSL is the most widespread broadband technology in Cyprus, is s available in most urban and sub-urban areas, with multiple providers offering packages that range from 512 kbit/s to 32 Mbit/s.
[31] The reason for this is the lack of specific and comprehensive legislative requirements for disclosing and making public information on media ownership.
[32] In addition, the regulator does not make available the data on the names of shareholders in its ownership and concentration report which is published every three years.
No shareholder (including relatives up to second grade and spouse) can control more than 40% of the shares of the company of local radio station.
Roughly, if one -or one's relatives up to second grade or their spouse- controls more than 5% of a media company he or she cannot be granted another licence for a radio or television station.
[34] In 2010, the US Department of State reported that the law provided for freedom of speech and of the press, and the government generally respected these rights in practice.
[43] Since 2013 the government of mainland Turkey has step up the pressure over TRNC editors and journalists to tone down those reports that are critical of Ankara.
New TRNC privacy laws (passed in March 2015) are also at risk of limiting investigative journalism and sharing of information.
In April 2013 the former President Demetris Christofias sued for the libel the state broadcaster CyBC and its head of news, Yiannis Kareklas.