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Greek media unions call 24-hour strike

Xinhua, October 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

Greek media unions called a 24-hour strike on Thursday evening as French President Francois Hollande was paying an official visit to Athens.

The Panhellenic Federation of Journalists' Unions (POESY), the Athens Daily Newspaper Journalists' Union (ESIEA) and other unions representing employees in the media sector decided a partial news blackout from Friday morning to Saturday morning in protest of a draft bill on media scheduled to be put to vote on Saturday.

The media draft law that foresees auctions for a dozen 10-year television broadcasting licenses among others has been promoted by the Left-led government as a step to restore transparency in the sector.

The Radical Left SYRIZA party of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has vowed to clear the media landscape by "oligarchs" with vested interests that for the past three decades operate private TV channels without proper licenses.

Opposition parties and media unions have criticized the government of attempting to strengthen control over the media at an extent that undermines press freedom and pluralism.

In addition, media unions warned that the new bill paves the ground for more mass dismissals in a sector which has suffered hard by the six year debt crisis.

According to an ESIEA press release, the strike concerns the national news agency AMNA, the national television and radio broadcaster ERT and all private television channels. Print media, private radio stations and news portals were exempted.

According to yet unconfirmed information national broadcaster ERT has requested an exemption from the strike to cover the second day of Hollande's significant visit to Greece. Endit