Greek Public Television (EDT), the replacement station for ERT which was shut down on June 11, has commenced broadcasting a basic signal.
A screen reading ‘Greek Public television’ and featuring a logo appeared around 8.30am on Wednesday morning in Greece.
The decision to commence the signal follows a vote on Tuesday night, at a parliamentary committee, of a bill establishing New Greek Radio, Internet and Television, or NERIT, as the new national broadcaster will be known.
Despite this move, ERT staff at the station’s broadcasting and administration building in Agia Paraskevi Athens have entered their second month of continuous broadcasting via a livestream hosted by the European Broadcasting Union.
Deputy Culture Minister Pantelis Kapsis, who has been assigned to oversee the creation of a new broadcaster, said earlier on Wednesday the transitional service would start airing films and documentaries, along with a news ticker. Broadcasts began at 9 pm on Wednesday night.
Kapsis said employees would be recruited for a news program and that the new hires would include a “significant number” of the 2,656 dismissed ERT workers.
The minister also said the hirings would only go ahead if the premises of ERT, which have been occupied by sacked employees since the closure, are evacuated. He added, however, that authorities were “not planning to send in riot police.”
Unionists dismissed the interim broadcaster as “illegal” while the Panhellenic Journalists’ Union (POESY) called a five-hour protest walkout.
The government turned off ERT on June 11, claiming the national broadcaster was inefficient and ate up 300 million euros ($421.96 million) a year. The shutdown caused over 2600 layoffs.
Source: Kathimerini.gr
