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Greek state broadcaster ERT back on air two years after closure

Xinhua, June 11, 2015 Adjust font size:

Greek state broadcaster ERT restarted broadcasting on Thursday, two years after it was shut down suddenly as part of austerity and reform measures to battle the debt crisis.

ERT kicked off in the morning with the Greek national anthem and a flashback video of what happened on June 11, 2013 with dismissed employees crying on the set.

The reopening of the state broadcaster will be celebrated with a concert in the courtyard of the ERT headquarters on Thursday evening.

"The black screen was a brief chapter in our life," Zoe Konstantopoulou, the Greek Parliament Speaker said speaking as the first guest of the first TV broadcast on Thursday.

Greek Prime minister Alexis Tsipras hailed the reopening of ERT as a "victory for democracy" and asked for a new, multifaceted and independent broadcast.

The sudden closure of ERT overnight as an symbol of corruption and mismanagement, provoked strong protests and political crisis with the withdrawal of one of the junior parties from the previous conservative-led coalition government.

Numerous rallies by unions and solidarity concerts took place, while a group of the total 2,600 sacked ERT staff had been broadcasting live programs via the internet since June 2013.

A few months later, the state broadcaster was replaced by a trimmed down version called NERIT with reduced staff and costs.

Among the main campaign pledges of the new Radical Left SYRIZA- led administration in the January 2015 general elections was to restore the operation of ERT.

On April the Greek parliament passed the law on the reopening and gave the "green light" to 1,550 former ERT employees to return to their posts. According to the law, the cost will reach up to 60 million euros per year and will be covered by fees set at three euros per month for taxpayers.

The National Federation of Television and Radio Employees (POSPERT) has objected to the terms of the reopening and has called for a rally at ERT's premises on Thursday evening.

The national broadcaster was established in 1938, initially offering radio services. Television broadcasts were launched in 1966. ERT was mainly funded by license fees paid by Greeks through electricity bills. Endit