The party of Macedonians in Greece , Vinozito / Rainbow video clips rejected by Greek TV Stations

The Greek national and local TV stations rejected to broadcast Vinozito/Rainbow video clips intended to familiarise the platform of the party with the Greek citizens. Five minutes commercial spot was prepared and distributed by the party two weeks ago but the stations were postponing broadcasting it being afraid that they might be accused by the right wings movement for solidarity with the Rainbow. One of the major TV station private owned Antenna yesterday officially informed the Rainbow that the video clip cannot be broadcast due to the usage of foreign language by the members of the party in the clip. Despite there is no prohibition by the Greek laws regarding the use of any languages in the TV campaign spots it is strange why the TV station has chosen to explain the censorship this way. The parties of the Turkish minority which in Greece is recognised as "Muslim" minority have no problems to broadcast their own clips on Turkish language. IN the case of the Vinozito/Rainbow party that represents the members of the Macedonian minority in Greece the Greek TV station have different approach. IN addition to this the Bulgarian Custom authorities still blocks 15,000 DVDs intended to be distributed to potential Rainbow supporters hat are being held since May 25 on the border crossing KUlata on Greek Bulgarian border. It is expected that the DVDs will be released one day before the elections to be held on JUne 7 so they can not be distributed to the Greek public.

However the official explanation of the TV stations for usage of foreign language in the spot is slightly different that the official Greek policy on the Macedonian language which has been considered as an “idiom” spoken by only a small group of people in north Greece. Official Greek authorities do not recognise Macedonian nation and Macedonian language different than the Greek Macedonian nation and language claiming that the term Macedonia belongs to Greek cultural heritage. The offensive terms used for Macedonians in Greece is Slavomacedonians, Fyromians or Skopians. The members of Macedonian minority in Greece are usually considered to be ‘Skopje spy’s, despite they and their parents were born in Greece and are loyal citizens of Greece without any claims for territorial division or any special status in the country.