ERT workers vow to continue broadcasts after govt shutdown

A ‘no signal ‘ sign appears on the public ERT, NET and ERT3 channels, after the government suspended state television and radio broadcaster ERT (AFP) Journalists and other staff at the country’s state television and radio stations, which were gradually pulled off the air around 11pm on Tuesday, have vowed to continue broadcasting online, after the government switched off transmitters late on Tuesday.

Screens went blank hours after a government announcement that it was closing the national broadcaster for an unspecified period of time and lay off over 2,600 workers, presenting it as a cost-cutting drive demanded by the troika.

The New Democracy-led government said the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation, or ERT, will reopen “as soon as possible” with a new, smaller workforce. It wasn’t immediately clear how long that would take, and whether all stations would reopen.

But thousands of protesters remained outside ERT’s headquarters in northern through the night as journalists continued a live broadcast, which was streamed online.

The shutdown also halted relays of BBC World, Deutsche Welle and Cypriot national broadcaster RIK.

“Congratulations to the Greek government,” newscaster Antonis Alafogiorgos said toward the end of ERT’s main TV live broadcast. “This is a blow to democracy,” he added, as thousands of media workers and supporters protested the closure outside the company’s headquarters in the Athens suburb of Ayia Paraskevi.

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The shock move heralds the first direct public sector layoffs in more than three years of austerity, which have already cost nearly 1m private-sector jobs. The announcement widened cracks in the year-old governing coalition, with both minority partners – Pasok and Democratic Left – condemning ERT’s suspension, while international journalists’ associations expressed dismay.

ERT television and radio started to be yanked off the air in several parts of the country around 11pm on Tuesday, about an hour before the government said all signals would go dead, although satellite broadcasts continued for a time.

“I was hoping up until the last minute that the reports were not true. It’s unbelievable,” news reader Stavroula Christofilea said moments after the move was announced.

A finance ministry statement said ERT has been formally disbanded, and authorities would “secure” the corporation’s facilities. Riot police deployed outside ERT buildings in several parts of the country, but no clashes were reported.

Government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou – a former journalist who worked at ERT from 1990 to 1995 – described ERT as a “haven of waste” and said its 2,600 employees will be compensated.

“ERT is a typical example of a unique lack of transparency and incredible waste. And that ends today,” Kedikoglou said. “It costs three to seven times as much as other TV stations and four to six times the personnel – for a very small viewership, about half that of an average private station.”

While lacking the prestige and popularity of other public broadcasters, ERT was long seen as a bastion of quality programming in a media landscape dominated by commercial stations. But it was also used by successive governments to provide safe jobs for political favourites, and, while nominally independent, devoted considerable time and effort to showcasing government policies.

The broadcaster is largely state-funded, with every household paying a fee through its electricity bills – whether they have a TV set or not.

Pasok and Democratic Left said they opposed ERT’s closure through a ministerial decree that takes immediate effect. The measure still requires eventual parliamentary approval, which the parties say they will withhold.

“The decree will be retroactively invalidated, as we are not going to vote for it … but we want it to be immediately withdrawn,” Pasok spokesperson Fofi Gennimata said.

A Pasok statement said New Democracy presented ERT’s demise as a necessary move to secure the release of the country’s next vital rescue loan payment. The country has so far received about €200bn of the total €240bn package, and a team of troika inspectors arrived in Athens this week for a new review of demanded spending cuts and reforms.

Private TV stations halted news broadcasts on Tuesday evening after the country’s POESY media union federation called a lightning six-hour strike, accusing the government of sacrificing the broadcaster to appease its creditors.

“Bailout creditors are demanding civil service layoffs and the government, in order to meet its obligations toward foreign monitors, is prepared to sacrifice the public broadcasting corporation,” a union statement said.

The Athens Journalists Union (Esiea) called a 48-hour strike on all news broadcasts on television and radio stations from 6am on Wednesday and a 24-hour strike in newspapers from 6am on Thursday.

Unions representing ERT workers at three terrestrial TV stations, one satellite station and its national and regional radio network said they would fight to keep the stations on the air.

“They are trying to scare us,” said Vayia Valavaki, secretary of the ERT union. “Unfortunately, our only weapons are our bodies.”

“I am now a laid-off single mother with a young child,” she said. “Where exactly is the state for me? How exactly is this country protecting me? Why are they leaving me without work?”

Protesters at ERT headquarters included main opposition Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras, who described the move as a blow against democracy.

“This is a coup targeting ERT employees but also the Greek people who pay for public broadcasting and have the right to objective information,” Tsipras said. “We warn the government not to illegally shut down the broadcast signal, and we are prepared to coordinate the struggle of employees and the Greek people for democracy.”

The European Broadcasting Union, an alliance of public service media organizations, expressed “profound dismay.”

“While we recognise the need to make budgetary savings, national broadcasters are more important than ever at times of national difficulty,” the EBU said in a letter to Samaras Tuesday.

Marc Gruber, director of the International Federation of Journalists in Europe, also strongly condemned the move.

“We consider this a blow to democracy,” he said, speaking from Brussels. “We intend to put pressure on the (Greek) government and the European Union. This is not just an issue of democracy. It is also an issue of people losing their jobs from one day to another.”

ERT is the first state broadcasting casualty among Europe’s bailed out countries. Portugal’s state broadcaster has had its staff and budgets cut, while Ireland’s RTE has cut the salaries of its highest paid stars following license-payers protests.