Question Elena Kountura on the exclusion of the deaf from information

SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance MEP Elena Kountura has tabled a question asking the Commission to take a position on the exclusion of the deaf and hard of hearing from information, which entails the abolition of the sign language bulletin on the main news bulletin of ERT public television. "The simultaneous transmission in sign language in ERT's main news bulletin was abolished as early as the beginning of autumn 2019, under the current government, and to date has not come back, although under the current law from 2017 (n.4488/2017) the media information of the disabled should be treated on an equal footing with all other citizens.

Elena Kountura also refers to the relevant Community Directive on audiovisual media services 2018/1808, according to which the right of disabled people to participate and integrate into the social and cultural life of the Union is inextricably linked to the provision of accessible audiovisual media services. Under this Directive, the Member States of the European Union must ensure that the media actively seek to make the content accessible to the disabled. It is also a minimum requirement in the context of commitments made under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of The Disabled.