June 14, 2013 • 7:30 PM
Prime Minister of Greece, Antonis Samaras, offered on Friday to hire a small number of workers to resume transmission of public television to defuse the protests by the sudden closure of the state broadcaster ERT and amend a division in the coalition government.
The proposal was rejected and deemed insufficient by one of the coalition partners, the Socialist PASOK party, which requires the immediate reopening of the radio and television stations of ERT.
There was no immediate comment from the third coalition partner, the Democratic Left party, who also wants to reopen the broadcaster.
Greece announced the closure of ERT on Tuesday in one of the most drastic measures in the country’s struggle to shore up state finances in bankruptcy, reduce the size of government and meet the terms of an international bailout.
The decision sparked a nationwide strike on Thursday, with thousands of people taking to the streets in protest, and a political crisis that has renewed fears of political instability in the country.
On Friday, the IOC Coordination Commission for press associations (ETHER) decided unanimously to continue a strike of all radio and television media at the end of ERT.
“We are continuing our fight to cancel the government’s decision to close ERT.’s a fight to defend public television and democracy,” the commission said.
Samaras
proposed that a special administrator appointed by ERT as a commission backed by all parties to recruit workers so that ERT can immediately resume their transmissions.
The Government has argued that the measure is temporary and that ERT will be relaunched as a more efficient and smaller.
(Writing by George Georgiopoulos, editing by Maria Cecilia Mora, editing by Tim Pearce)
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