2013-11-07 18:41:26

Greek riot police clear staff from state broadcaster


(Vatican Radio) Greek riot police in the early hours of this morning cleared the state broadcasting building of staff who had been staging a sit-in for five months, defying the government’s shutdown of the broadcaster in June.

Twelve people were in the ERT building in northern Athens when the police ordered them to leave. They had been part of a news and technical team that streamed a technically illegal programme online for the past five months.

An official spokesman here in Athens said the government had decided to act to preserve public property. It’s finally enforcing its decision earlier this year to take ERT off the air as wasteful and corrupt. But the move outraged the leftwing opposition, which called for demonstrations outside the ERT building that lasted through the day. In a few cases the police had to use tear gas to repel hot-headed protesters.
The question that everyone was asking here in Athens today was why the government waited until now to clear the ERT premises, instead of doing it last June. The answer seemed to be the Troika, which is in town again this week taking another long and hard look at Greece’s economic governance.

The police move on the ERT building could be an attempt to show the Troika that the government is serious about cutting out the deadwood.

As protesters rallied around the ERT building today, the second day of a general strike, it remained to be seen whether this new government toughness would pay dividends.

Listen to this report by John Carr RealAudioMP3








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