Greece pulls plug on state broadcaster

(Vatican Radio) Greeks woke up this morning without a state radio and television network, after the government’s surprise decision yesterday to shut it down. In a move that threw a shock into the country’s media establishment, the government pulled the plug on the ET1, NET and ET3 channels on the grounds that its staff were overpaid in a time of wrenching economic austerity. An official spokesman accused the ET1 channel in particular of wasting taxpayers’ money on a grand scale and remaining bloated and overstaffed.

The news triggered immediate strong protests from almost all Greece’s political parties and, of course, the strong media unions, which vowed to fight for a reversal of the decision, which leaves the private channels masters of the field. At least 2,600 workers have lost their jobs in one blow. The European Broadcasting Union also called for the decision to be reversed.

As the state channels blacked out late last night, thousands gathered in the forecourt of the ET1 building in northern Athens. This morning some staffers continued putting a programme together over the internet, though the presence of riot police ringing the building suggested that the government was prepared to use force to evacuate it.

As far as the average Greek viewer is concerned, the stodgy state channels were way down in the ratings and not terribly popular. Officials indicated here in Athens today that a new slimmed-down and non-political state broadcaster would be set up in the autumn. But one thing was clear – the sinful decades when every ruling party could pack the state channels with its own voters and exercise censorship by telephone are well and truly over. Listen to John Carr's report