From Common Dreams: https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/06/12
‘The Greek people are just about to lose their voice’
Jacob Chamberlain
Published on Wednesday, June 12, 2013 by Common Dreams
The Greek government announced late Tuesday that it is shutting down its only public television broadcaster—the latest in the country’s drastic austerity measures—spawning both widespread anger and a guerrilla TV station organized by the European Broadcasting Union.
The move, which has left 2,700 people without jobs and a country without its public broadcasting station, ERT, is being criticized as the “most dramatic in a series of attacks on free speech and public space by the Greek government.”
Over 3,000 people including the now former ERT employees gathered outside the broadcaster’s headquarters north of Athens on Tuesday night following the announcement, vowing to stage a sit-in until the government rescinded the order.
And that is just what they did.
“A number of ERT staff have defied the government order, staying overnight in the broadcaster’s headquarters and managing to continue broadcasting a makeshift schedule of news and talk shows,” the Guardian is reporting.
As tensions rose, reporter Maria Margaronis described the scene as it happened:
One by one, the transmitters around the country are being turned off. Journalists and production staff are occupying the broadcaster’s Athens headquarters; the network’s musicians are playing protest songs in the courtyard. Many thousands of protesters are gathering outside; so are busloads of riot police. @amaenad tweets, “Everyone in #Greece has been watching #Occupygezi. And PM Samaras just gave them a spark. He was always as stupid as he was arrogant. #ERT”
ERT’s TV and radio services did go off air overnight, but employees were able to maintain broadcasting over the internet.
However, members of the The European Broadcasting Union also managed to set up a satellite news outpost in the parking lot outside of the ERT building, and continued to broadcast the news from there.
Continue reading at: https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/06/12
