Greece Faces General Strike Amid Fury over State TV Closure

Local Editor

Greek unions announced a 24-hour general strike Thursday, amid a storm of protest over the government's decision to shut down public broadcaster ERT as part of sweeping cost-cutting measures.

The socialist and moderate leftist parties supporting the coalition government called the decision "unacceptable" as Prime Minister Antonis Samaras refused to back down.
"We are eliminating a hotbed of opacity and waste," Samaras said at a European Investment Bank event in Athens on Wednesday. "We are protecting the public interest."

The broadcaster's television and radio stations were abruptly pulled off air late Tuesday and its nearly 2,700 staff suspended as part of the conservative-led coalition government's deeply unpopular austerity drive.
"The ERT lockup amounts to a coup d'etat," leading union GSEE said in a statement. It announced the 24-hour general strike for Thursday, the third in the crisis-hit country this year.

There was also a protest by journalists in neighboring Cyprus, where there are fears that the public broadcaster there could go the same way as the government looks to slash spending in the island's own austerity drive.
The Samaras administration quickly presented legislation creating a new broadcaster called New Hellenic Radio, Internet and Television [NERIT] to replace the 60-year-old ERT.
The sudden shutdown of ERT has caused a national uproar, with journalists kicking off their strike on Wednesday while defiant staff staged sit-ins in Athens and Greece's second-largest city Thessaloniki.

Riot police were stationed outside ERT offices around the country to prevent "any destruction", said Kedikoglou, himself a former journalist at the organization.
The European Union said it did not question the government decision but pointed out that public broadcasting was "an integral part of European democracy".

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, on a visit to Spain, wondered whether the closure was the "right way to get people to love political decisions".
Media observers acknowledge that ERT has a long history of mismanagement and political meddling, but say the Samaras administration is not free of blame.
Recent controversial decisions include the appointment of a former deputy minister's daughter as a show host, and the ousting of two journalists who had criticized a minister on air.

The government said ERT would reopen with around half its current 2,655 employees.

The shutdown followed months of work stoppages by ERT employees angry at plans to restructure the broadcaster.
Athens has pledged to cut 4,000 state-sector jobs this year and another 11,000 in 2014 to keep drawing rescue loans under the EU-IMF package.

Source: News agencies, Edited by website team