Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC)

The Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation, Ραδιοφωνικό Ίδρυμα Κύπρου, is Cyprus’s public service broadcaster. Its origins date to the Cyprus Broadcasting Service, established in 1953. It operates television, radio and digital services as a statutory public corporation. Thanasis Tsokos is Director-General. Pavlos Pavlou became Board Chairman in August 2026, succeeding Stavros Georgiades.

Media assets

Television: CyBC 1, CyBC 2, CyBC HD and RIK Sat

Radio: First, Second, Third and Fourth Programmes

Digital: news and programme websites, live streams, on-demand television and radio, podcasts and vodcasts, and the Digital Herodotus archive. RIKFLIX provides interactive services through the red button on compatible, internet-connected televisions receiving CyBC’s terrestrial channels.

In its May 2026 report, the outgoing Board reported that CyBC 1’s prime-time audience share increased from 9.9 per cent in 2024 to 11.3 per cent in 2025 and 12.3 per cent in the 2026 reporting period.

Ownership and governance

CyBC’s governing statute is the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation Law, Chapter 300A. It provides for up to nine Board members appointed by the Council of Ministers, with three-year terms. The Board appoints the Director-General subject to Cabinet approval; a refusal of approval must be specifically reasoned.

A new nine-member Board was announced on 6 August 2026, with Pavlos Pavlou as Chairman and Michalis Charakis as Vice-Chairman. The previous Board’s leadership should therefore no longer be presented as current.

The disciplinary proceedings against Thanasis Tsokos ended in October 2024. According to contemporaneous reporting by Politis, the Board terminated the proceedings on 17 October following an investigation that cleared him, and he returned to his duties on 18 October 2024. His continued service as Director-General is documented in September 2026.

The published consolidated statute still contains a provision permitting the Cabinet to dismiss Board members without giving reasons. That provision must be considered alongside the European Media Freedom Act’s applicable requirements for independent governance and protected appointment and dismissal procedures.

Source of funding and budget

CyBC is financed overwhelmingly through government grants, supplemented by other income. Its annual budget requires parliamentary approval.

The 2025 and 2026 budget laws provide the following figures.

Parliament approved the 2026 budget on 12 March 2026, providing for a deficit of EUR 7,205,329. According to Interior Ministry figures reported during the parliamentary proceedings, this reflects EUR 6,744,848 for the new pension scheme and EUR 460,481 connected with CyBC’s host-broadcasting role for Cyprus’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The parliamentary report therefore distinguishes spending authorisation from available revenue.

Editorial independence

CyBC has statutory programming obligations and external regulatory oversight. Section 19 of its governing law requires impartial treatment of Cyprus’s communities and fair balance in political broadcasting. Section 22B provides for an annual qualitative assessment of its public-service performance by the broadcasting regulator, now the Radio-Television and Digital Services Authority.

The regulator’s assessment of CyBC’s output in 2024 concluded, with reservations, that political television coverage broadly maintained a satisfactory balance. It nevertheless identified uneven representation between certain parties and cautioned that airtime figures alone were insufficient for a complete assessment.

The regulator also identified limits to its enforcement powers. It called for amendments allowing supervision and sanctions over CyBC on the same basis as private broadcasters, noting gaps affecting its ability to act on certain content-related breaches. Its report therefore provides both evidence of oversight and evidence of weaknesses in that oversight.

Concerns about political interference remain documented. The European Commission’s 2026 Rule of Law Report on Cyprus records continuing stakeholder concerns about political interference in CyBC.

During the March 2026 budget debate, members of parliament also raised allegations of presidential interference and politically motivated exclusions of programme guests.

The domestic statute retains additional government powers. Section 22 permits authorised officials to require broadcasts of specified material and the Cabinet to require CyBC to refrain from broadcasting specified material. This review identified no documented use of those powers to direct coverage during the review period.

European law supplies additional safeguards. Article 5 of the European Media Freedom Act, applicable since 8 August 2025, requires independent public-service media governance, protected appointment and dismissal procedures, and adequate, sustainable and predictable funding.

The Commission’s July 2026 report described Cyprus’s implementing legislation as pending, with further amendments to CyBC’s law planned to separate Board and management responsibilities. This review did not verify enactment of the completed reforms by the September cutoff, so conformity should not be presented as established.

AI and digital policy

This review did not identify a publicly accessible CyBC policy specifically governing generative AI in editorial production.

Classification rationale

CyBC remains classified State-Controlled (SC) under State Media Monitor’s assessment.

Its governing Board is appointed by the Cabinet, which also approves the Director-General’s appointment. Its financing depends overwhelmingly on government grants, subject to parliamentary budget approval.

The editorial-control assessment rests on documented concerns about political interference and weaknesses in institutional safeguards.

Statutory standards and independent regulatory scrutiny exist and must be recognised. The regulator’s qualified finding of broadly balanced political coverage is relevant countervailing evidence. The classification reflects SMM’s assessment of the combined governance, funding and editorial environment; it is not a finding that every programme is government-directed.

September 2026