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Analysis: What lurks beneath the closure of ERT

disorderisti — Fri, 08 Nov 2013 10:53:39 +0000

The real reasons behind the ERT shutdown, the 300 million the state lost, and who benefits from it.

By Apostolis Fotiadis

The eviction of the remaining staff from former public television’s (ERT) building last night in Athens was a bitter showdown of an unequal brinkmanship. The picture of handcuffs used as a padlock at building’s gate has already become one of historical value. It is a picture from the future of Europe.
But there’s a story behind the picture: Back on June 11th,with no prior notice, the Greek government shut down ERT, suggesting that urgent austerity reforms have been the reason for its decision.

But Nikos Mihalitsis, former director of the technical department of ERT, has analyzed thoroughly that the public broadcaster’s shutdown occurred for other reasons. “One is that the government was going to apply, like it finally did, similar measures to other public organizations and shut down schools and hospitals. So it needed a trial case to measure reaction” and second and most important that private television owners in cooperation with politicians in power are trying to control the future TV market and as a result what information reaches to the public. “The time of the closure is not accidental. ERT was shut down right before the beginning of a tender [which has eventually been postponed for the end of 2014, something that might to an extent be connected to the prolonged standoff with ERT ex-workers] for the establishment of HD networks throughout the country. There are terms in this tender that clearly point to a Greek company that represents the interests of five private TV entrepreneurs, and make sure that no international player would consider bringing an offer” said Mihalitsis.

In Europe, and in most of the world, TV producers are prohibited from owning the distribution networks themselves, as a safeguard of independent broadcasting. Greek law, however, predicts that a TV producer could own a minimum percentage in such a company. This has created leeway for the afforementioned five to create a consortium and claim the tender for HD infrastructure. The consortium (Digea) has already won a tender to establish a smaller HD network covering only key points in Greece.

Absence of ERT means not only lack of a privileged public entity that would affect how HD broadcasting networks are distributed for the benefit of the public but also that a consortium of private actors, in coordination with its political partners, will be able to attempt to control anything broadcasted in the country.

Contrary to benefiting the public by saving it from an ineffective public organization burdened of personnel appointed as a political clientele, which has been partly true, the closure has been estimated to reach over 300 million in losses of rights and compensations for incomplete projects.

The importance of this case was demonstrated by the anxiety of the Ministry of Finance, to which all ERT’s property belongs after its closure, to silence ERT workers that stayed in the premises and kept broadcasting since the 11th of June. Something it failed to do until last night.

While criticism regarding pulling the plug of a public TV overnight started pouring in throughout Europe on June 12th, the European Broadcasters Union (EBU) stepped in and provided a sattelite uplink in order to keep it going. On June 14th its president Jean Paul Fillipot flew to Athens, to warn that the move constitutes an act against democracy, and met with government officials asking them to backtrack on their decision. EBU Head of Institutional Relations Giacomo Mazzone told me in an email exchange at the time that EBU’s intervention was a committed one “because EBU is convinced that public service broadcasting is a primary right of the European citizens and nobody cannot prevented to access such service even for a single day”.

According to Panos Haritos, former ERT’s correspondent in the Middle East based in Jerusalem, a day after EBU’s visit to Athens the Minister of Finance asked from the Greek ambassador in Israel to contact the satellite provider company RRSAT and request ERT off its satellites, through which EBU transmitted its uplink. “The Israeli company accepted the request after the Greek side threatened to move legally against it” Haritos said.

Minister of Finance Giannis Stournaras had also threatened to take legal action against whoever reproduced signal with ERT’s brand while workers of ERT remained in the HQ of ERT and kept broadcasting on a daily. EBU maintained ERT’s TV and radio frequencies via a live stream on its website.
EBU interrupted ERT’s streaming on August 20th after the Greek government launched interim “Public Television” (DT), in which it hired a couple of hundred of ERT personnel and transferred its signal and rights, launched it first news bulletin. Some ERT workers stayed in the old headquarters and went on streaming online (with the help of ThePressProject). Initially DT broadcasting was made possible from private studios linked to some of the biggest private stake holders in Greek television.

The methods employed in eliminating ERT have caused severe political as well as legal criticism and appear to be full of irregularities. For one, the closure has circumvented the parliament and was implemented through a ministerial decree issued jointly by the Minister of Finance and Deputy PM Simos Kedikoglou, ratified only by some of the ministers. Second, according to Mazzone “some strange movements from the portfolio of rights of ERT on sport contracts to some commercial televisions occurred without any transparency and accountable decision”. Finally the ex CEO, and then appointed trustee of ERT, responsible for the broadcaster’s liquidation, Gikas Manalis has sent letters to all workers informing them they are fired since 11th of June. The letters were mailed unsigned and unstamped, and have been characterized as bearing no legal substance from expert constitutional lawyers.

In June the irregularities of the handling of ERT’s case had thrown PM Samaras government into a temporary existential crisis. The PM ignored an order by the Council of State to immediately restore public broadcasting. The government interpreted this decision in accordance with its actions and refused to open ERT, causing a cabinet reshuffling after the third partner of the coalition government, DIMAR, walked off. The new cabinet included a deputy Minister for ERT’s renewal who entered negotiations with workers regarding the future of the organization and the building, failing to create any consensus over the issue.

The closure of ERT by the government of New Democracy and PASOK underlines the nature of the governance with which the country was led through a severe austerity that has lasted already four years. Now based almost entirely on televised manipulation of public opinion, this is a government that takes down yet another opposition voice. Meanwhile it accuses everyone that talks against it of trying to obstruct the process of seeing the country out of this crisis, a moment supposedly close. Meanwhile, the country’s creditors that are in Athens these days are preparing another bitter pill of austerity.

http://www.thepressproject.net/article/50544

Greek police evacuate occupied TV station

dimitriswright — Thu, 07 Nov 2013 09:49:40 +0000

Riot police evacuate the headquarters of former public broadcaster ERT, which had been occupied by former employees.

Greek riot police stormed the building of former state television ERT and evicteddozens of protesters occupying it since June when the government abruptly shut the broadcaster, police officials said.

Scuffles broke out between some protesters and riot police, who had cordoned off the area and blocked the entrance to the building.

ERT’s closure, aimed at meeting a target for job cuts set by foreign lenders, triggered a government crisis and forced sacked journalists to turn to the Internet to broadcast news illegally.

They showed footage on Thursday of an empty newsroom.

“The government has reached such a point of delirium that it is staging a coup against itself,” said Zoe Konstantopoulou, a senior politician from the leftist opposition Syriza party, who rushed to the building with other party members.

“Some people will be held accountable before history and future generations,” she said.

Government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou said the early morning police operation was carried out to “apply the law and restore legality”.

“(The building) was under illegal occupation,” he said in a statement.

Police fired a few rounds of teargas to disperse small groups of protesters.

Police briefly detained four people for resisting authorities during the raid, officials said.

About 300 ERT supporters rallied outside the broadcaster’s main building, in the northern suburb of Agia Paraskevi.

Inside, police checked in the presence of a prosecutor whether facilities and equipment had been damaged since the broadcaster’s closure.

The government’s sudden decision to switch off the signal of ERT TV in June and fire its 2,600 employees to please international lenders shocked many in Greece and cost Prime Minister Antonis Samaras a coalition partner.

Hundreds of those who found themselves without jobs had defied government and management orders to leave the building.

Since then, they have been broadcasting a bootleg news channel over the Internet, while the government launched a new television channel called Public TV or DT.

“The battle for democracy and social justice which ERT workers have been fighting for more than four months, has reached its most crucial moment,” read a message on ERT’s Facebook page calling for people to protest in solidarity.

“It’s time to act, rally now!”

Source: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2013/11/greek-police-evacuate-occupied-tv-station-201311745724353608.html

Greek riot police evict last ERT staff

dimitriswright — Thu, 07 Nov 2013 09:44:28 +0000

Greek police say they have removed the remaining former workers from what used to be the headquarters of the now-defunct ERT state broadcaster.

The pre-dawn operation by riot police started shortly after 4am local time Thursday. Only a handful of former workers were in the building at the time, authorities said.

The building had been occupied by the protesting ex-employees for the past five months.

The complex is in the northern Athens suburb of Agia Paraskevi.

Greece‘s conservative-led government abruptly closed ERT on 11 June and fired all 2,700 staff, citing the need to cut costs due to the country’s severe financial crisis.

Sacked workers occupied the building for months, producing unauthorised broadcasts.

The government has since opened another broadcaster named EDT.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/nov/07/greek-riot-police-evict-ert

Back to a feudal Europe

dimitriswright — Sat, 20 Jul 2013 10:05:14 +0000

Are the economic policies needed to maintain the euro still compatible with democracy? Greece’s state broadcaster was established after the fall of the military dictatorship. Last month the Greek government (which is implementing EU injunctions) decided to shut it down without authorisation from parliament (see Where Syriza stands). Before the Greek courts suspended this decision, the European Commission could have recalled the public service broadcasting protocol to the Amsterdam Treaty of 1997, which states that “the system of public broadcasting in the member states is directly related to the democratic, social and cultural needs of each society and to the need to preserve media pluralism.” Instead, it backed the Greek government’s actions, stating on 12 June that the closure “should be seen in the context of the major and necessary efforts that the authorities are taking to modernise the Greek economy.”

Europeans know all about constitutional projects that have been pushed through despite being rejected by public referendum. They remember candidates who, having promised to renegotiate the terms of a treaty, then get it ratified without changing a comma. The people of Cyprus very nearly had a percentage of their bank deposits seized by the government (1). But this is a new milestone: the EC is washing its hands of the dismantling of the only Greek media not yet owned by shipping magnates, since this will make it possible to sack 2,800 workers immediately from the public sector, which the EC has always abhorred. It will also allow Greece to meet the targets for job cuts that the troika (2) has imposed on a country where 60% of young people are unemployed.

This misplaced zeal coincides with the publication in the US media of a confidential report in which the IMF concedes that the policies it has implemented in Greece over the last three years have resulted in “notable failures”. Were the errors due simply to over-optimistic growth forecasts? Probably not. According to the Wall Street Journal’s interpretation of this verbose document, the IMF admits that “an immediate restructuring [of Greece’s debt] would have been cheaper for European taxpayers, as private-sector creditors were repaid in full for two years before 2012 using the money borrowed by Athens. Greece’s debt level thus remained undented, but it was now owed to the IMF and Eurozone taxpayers instead of banks and hedge funds” (3).

The speculators have extricated themselves without losing one cent of the loans they made to Greece at astronomical interest rates. Obviously, such skill in robbing Europe’s taxpayers for the benefit of the hedge funds qualifies the troika to make the Greek people suffer. There are also hospitals, schools and universities that could be closed without any opposition. And not just in Greece: it’s only by making such sacrifices Europe that will be able keep its place in the triumphal progress towards a new Middle Ages.

Source: http://mondediplo.com/2013/07/01edito

Ανοιχτή και Ελεύθερη ΕΡΤ – Sign the petition

dimitriswright — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 08:45:44 +0000

Σε συνέχεια προηγούμενων εκδηλώσεων συμπαράστασης/διαμαρτυρίας και μετά από μια ανοιχτή συζήτηση στο Ντελφτ την Κυριακή 23 Ιουνίου αναδείχθηκε ως αναγκαιότητα η περαιτέρω ενίσχυση της αλληλεγγύης στον αγώνα των εργαζομένων της ΕΡΤ. Προς αυτό το σκοπό αποφασίστηκε να συνδιαμορφωθεί ένα κείμενο που θα καλεί τους Έλληνες και τις απανταχού Κοινότητες ανά την Ολλανδία να πάρουν θέση ως προς το σημαντικό αυτό ζήτημα που αφορά το σύνολο της Ελληνικής Ομογένειας.

Το κείμενο θα συνοδεύεται από το online petition http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/anoikti-kai-eleutheri-ert

Είναι εξαιρετικά σημαντικό να μαζευτούν όσο το δυνατόν περισσότερες υπογραφές για να καταγγελθεί ο αυταρχικός τρόπος με τον οποίο η Ελληνική κυβέρνηση αποφάσισε να κλείσει την δημόσια ραδιοτηλεόραση. Το ολοκληρωμένο κείμενο μπορεί να διαβαστεί παρακάτω

Εμείς οι Έλληνες κάτοικοι Ολλανδίας επιθυμούμε με το κείμενο αυτό να καταγγείλουμε με τον πιο κατηγορηματικό τρόπο το κλείσιμο της ΕΡΤ. Σε συνέχεια προηγούμενων εκδηλώσεων συμπαράστασης/διαμαρτυρίας και μετά από μια ανοιχτή συζήτηση στο Ντελφτ την Κυριακή 23 Ιουνίου αναδείχθηκε ως αναγκαιότητα η περαιτέρω ενίσχυση της αλληλεγγύης στον αγώνα των εργαζομένων της ΕΡΤ. Προς αυτό το σκοπό αποφασίστηκε να συνδιαμορφωθεί ένα κείμενο που θα καλεί τους Έλληνες και τις απανταχού Κοινότητες ανά την Ολλανδία να πάρουν θέση ως προς το σημαντικό αυτό ζήτημα που αφορά το σύνολο της Ελληνικής Ομογένειας.

Συνεισφέρουμε στο να δοθεί μια ισχυρή απάντηση στην αντισυνταγματική και αυταρχική κίνηση της κυβέρνησης να βάλει λουκέτο στην ΕΡΤ πετώντας στο δρόμο σχεδόν 2700 εργαζομένους με μια απλή Πράξη Νομοθετικού Περιεχομένου.

Οφείλουμε να λειτουργήσουμε συλλογικά ώστε να καταστεί σαφές ότι η ΕΡΤ παρόλα τα προβλήματα λειτουργίας της (δοτές διοικήσεις, αδιαφάνεια, λογοκρισία, συχνά φερέφωνο κυβερνητικής προπαγάνδας) αποτελεί ένα δημόσιο κοινωνικό αγαθό που δεν μπορεί να αντικατασταθεί από την ιδιωτική πρωτοβουλία και η περιουσία αυτής όπως και των λοιπόν δημόσιων φορέων δεν είναι προς πώληση.

Επιδιώκουμε να σταλεί ένα μήνυμα ότι οι Έλληνες του εξωτερικού και της Ολλανδίας συγκεκριμένα, στέκονται αλληλέγγυοι στον δίκαιο αγώνα των εργαζομένων της ΕΡΤ και όχι αδιάφοροι για τα όσα διαδραματίζονται.

Να φανεί ξεκάθαρα η εναντίωσή μας στα σχέδια περαιτέρω υποβάθμισης της δημόσιας ραδιοσυχνότητας που έχει ιδιαίτερη σημασία για εμάς του Έλληνες του εξωτερικού.

Να ακουστεί η ενωμένη φωνή μας για μια διαφορετική ραδιοτηλεόραση που θα είναι ανεξάρτητη από τις προσταγές της εκάστοτε κυβέρνησης, δίπλα στα μεγάλα προβλήματα της χειμαζόμενης κοινωνίας, φάρος αντικειμενικής-πλουραλιστικής-δημοκρατικής ενημέρωσης, προαγωγός πολιτισμού-ψυχαγωγίας αποεμπορευματοποιημένης, κοινωνικό βήμα και κάτω από τον έλεγχο των εργαζομένων της.

Το δίλημμα διαφάνεια ή λουκέτο είναι πλαστό αφού οι σημερινές πολιτικές των άναρχων “εξυγιάνσεων” δημοσίων υπηρεσιών είναι οι ίδιες χτεσινές πολιτικές που συστηματικά διόγκωσαν ένα υδροκέφαλο δημόσιο τομέα για να εξυπηρετηθούν μικροκομματικές ανάγκες μέσω των ρουσφετιών και της διαπλοκής των μεγαλοεργολάβων και των κρατικοδίαιτων επιχειρηματικών ομίλων. Η ΕΡΤ είναι μόνη η αρχή, το πρώτο θύμα στο νέο αυτό γύρο “ανάπτυξης”. Σε πείσμα όμως όλων οι εργαζόμενοι στην ΕΡΤ, τις τελευταίες αυτές ημέρες, απέδειξαν ότι μπορούν να διαχειρίζονται μόνοι τους το ‘’σπίτι τους’’, δημοκρατικά και πολυφωνικά, δηλαδή πολύ καλύτερα από πριν. Είμαστε στο πλευρό τους!

Έλληνες κάτοικοι Ολλανδίας

Vive ERT,au nom de la liberté démocratique !

dimitriswright — Mon, 24 Jun 2013 23:14:51 +0000

La Grèce, berceau culturel de la civilisation occidentale, pays qui inventa l’admirable notion de “démocratie”, vit aujourd’hui – avec l’illégitime et brutale fermeture de sa radio-télévision publique (ERT) – une des périodes les plus sombres de son histoire moderne et contemporaine.

Lettre ouverte

Monsieur le Premier Ministre du Gouvernement Grec, Antonis Samaras,

Les intellectuels et artistes d’Europe vous adressent cet appel solennel, au nom de la liberté démocratique, à la réouverture immédiate et inconditionnelle de la radio-télévision publique grecque, ERT.

La Grèce, berceau culturel de la civilisation occidentale, pays qui inventa l’admirable notion de “démocratie” et où naquit le mot même d’Europe, vit aujourd’hui – avec l’illégitime et brutale fermeture de sa radio-télévision publique (ERT) – une des périodes les plus sombres de son histoire moderne et contemporaine.

Le peuple grec, révolté par cette décision pour le moins arbitraire, aussi injuste qu’injustifiable, ne s’y est d’ailleurs pas trompé, lui qui se trouve désormais coupé, sans plus de connexion télévisuelle ni radiophonique, de sa diaspora : cet acte d’une rare violence politique, en tout point contraire aux principes mêmes de la démocratie, rappelle, de sinistre mémoire, la dictature, entre les années 1967 et 1974, des colonels.

Et encore : même celle-ci, cette junte militaire qui ne se souciait pourtant que fort peu du bien-être de ces concitoyens qu’elle commandait alors d’une impitoyable main de fer, n’osa pousser son autoritarisme jusque-là.

De cette très regrettable décision, aussi funeste dans son fond qu’intolérable dans sa forme, vous en êtes, Monsieur le Premier Ministre, le véritable responsable. Cet acte, qui ne vous honore guère, est la négation même – le paradoxe s’avère énorme, vous en conviendrez aisément – du beau nom que désigne votre parti : “Nouvelle Démocratie”, lequel, votre peuple n’ayant jamais été consulté sur cette question (pas plus d’ailleurs que vos alliés politiques), n’a jamais aussi mal porté son titre. Il relève même, en l’occurrence, d’une abusive et très malhonnête arnaque sémantique.

Pis : il équivaut à une trahison politique et linguistique tout à la fois, en totale opposition, y compris sur le plan moral, avec le sens profond du concept de “démocratie”, ce principe que les humanistes que nous sommes souhaiteraient universel.

Ainsi est-ce notre solidarité la plus sincère et totale que nous exprimons aujourd’hui au peuple grec, de plus en plus douloureusement malmené, à force d’absurdes et contre-productives politiques d’austérité ces temps-ci.

Vos très expéditives et sommaires méthodes, inacceptables à tous points de vue, ne font, en outre, qu’aggraver le problème plutôt que de le résoudre, au niveau social, dans la mesure où, en plus de ne point vous soucier de la volonté populaire, vous envoyez ainsi illégalement, sans préavis ni ménagement, près de trois mille personnes aussi désarmées qu’innocentes, lesquelles n’ont certes pas à payer pour les erreurs de leur hiérarchie professionnelle (que les gouvernements grecs du passé ont eux-mêmes contribué, suprême hypocrisie, à mettre à la tête de cette institution), au chômage.

Même votre Conseil d’Etat vous a désavoué, par décision de justice, en ordonnant la réouverture immédiate de cette radio-télévision que vous avez ainsi cru pouvoir impunément liquider.

Il est donc urgent, toutes affaires cessantes, que vous rouvriez définitivement, Monsieur le Premier Ministre, la radio-télévision publique grecque : celle-ci ne vous appartient pas, ni à vous ni à votre parti, pas plus, d’ailleurs, qu’au gouvernement que vous présidez, à l’évidence, si mal.

Elle est, comme son nom l’indique, un bien public, souverain, commun et inaliénable à la fois. Ne spoliez donc pas davantage encore, par cette inique et incompréhensible suppression d’une consistante partie de l’espace public, le peuple grec, que les divers représentants de votre caste nationale n’ont que trop volé déjà ! Et, surtout, ne bâillonnez pas ainsi l’intangible liberté d’expression, sans laquelle il n’est point de démocratie qui vaille ni de civilisation qui tienne !

Soyez donc digne, Monsieur le Premier Ministre, du glorieux passé de votre pays, la Grèce, et de ces grands hommes – de Homère à Aristote, en passant par Hérodote, Hésiode, Pythagore, Epicure, Socrate, Platon, Hippocrate, Sophocle ou Eschyle – qui ont fait son immortelle histoire, tant sur le plan philosophique que scientifique ou artistique : cette Histoire sans laquelle l’Europe elle-même, et donc l’Union européenne en tant que telle, n’existerait pas aujourd’hui. Vive ERT !
Les signataires de cette lettre ouverte: Soisic Belin, journaliste, attachée de presse aux Editions Albin Michel (Paris). Hélène Bravin, essayiste, journaliste (Paris). Marc Bressant, écrivain, Grand Prix du Roman de l’Académie française. Jacques De Decker, écrivain, secrétaire perpétuel de l’Académie royale de Langue et de Littérature françaises de Belgique. Nadine Dewit, artiste-peintre, Académie royale des Beaux-Arts de Liège (Belgique). Marek Halter, écrivain (Paris). Jean Jauniaux, écrivain, chroniqueur littéraire (Bruxelles). Jean-Marie Klinkenberg, linguiste, membre de l’Académie royale de Belgique. Giorgio Marconi, fondateur du “Studio Marconi”, galerie d’art à Milan (Italie). Daniel Mesguich, comédien, directeur du Conservatoire national supérieur d’Art dramatique (Paris). Gilles Perrault, écrivain, journaliste (Paris). Michelle Perrot, historienne, professeur émérite des universités (Paris). Patrick Roegiers, écrivain (Paris). Daniel Salvatore Schiffer, philosophe, écrivain, éditorialiste (Paris-Bruxelles-Luxembourg). Annie Sugier, présidente de la Ligue du Droit international des Femmes, association créée par Simone de Beauvoir (Paris). Jeanie Toschi Marazzani Visconti, essayiste, journaliste, éditorialiste (Milan, Italie). Elisabeth Weissman, essayiste, journaliste (Paris).

Source: http://www.lalibre.be/debats/opinions/vive-ertau-nom-de-la-liberte-democratique-51c7bf3335703374da318ea4

General Assembly Resolution of the workers in the Music Ensembles of ERT

disorderisti — Sun, 23 Jun 2013 21:13:01 +0000

1) Self-run public radiotelevision, open to the major problems of the tortured society.

2) ERT is to become a real democratic means of expression of the popular desire for Democracy and Freedom.

3) There should be an elected Board of Directors, revocable, voted directly by the Greek people. This Board will undertake the safekeeping of polyphony and pluralism on the basis of Democracy and National Independance, as mentioned in the 1730/87 establishment law of ERT S.A.

4) Reactivation of ASKE (Representative Assembly of Social Control), of the Supervisory Board which will control and oversee the Board of Directors of ERT.

Every Greek citizen should have access and an inalienable right to communicate his opinion, his problem to the public radiotelevision.

The Music Ensembles as always undertake to elevate the feeling of the Greek people through art, tradition, the Greek character and culture which, throughout the political changeover, have been brutally hit by every sort of political mechanism which, in combination with the trash of private television, have ruined every value-based background of our society.

We will not allow them to abolish the Music Ensembles of ERT, an oasis of civilisation, the last bastion of culture and intellectual uplift.

The workers of the Music Ensembles

In Greek: https://openassemblyert.wordpress.com/

Αnnouncement of the ERT workers’ union (POSPERT)

disorderisti — Sat, 22 Jun 2013 11:01:34 +0000

Today, the Greek government ordered the employees of the Greek Public Broadcaster (ERT) to evacuate the premises of the broadcaster. They also announced that the closure of ERT is definite and that a new broadcaster will be launched with fewer employees in an indefinite period. The union of ERT workers issued the following announcement as a response. The government will most probably send the riot police to evacuate the building in Aghia Paraskevi-Athens in the coming hours or days. We ask for your solidarity.

THIS IS ERT! THIS IS ERT!

Αnnouncement of the ERT workers’ union (POSPERT)

Our response to the ministry of Finance: “Μολὼν λαβέ”! (cc. “Come and take it!”)

- The order to evacuate the premises of ERT that was given by lawbreakers, by those that violate the national constitution and are afraid of democracy is only violence that aims at driving us to give up on our struggle! It is only violence that aims at getting us down on our knees! It is violence to intimidate us!

We respond, in accordance with our conscience and with full sense of our duties, by continuing our struggle and defending democracy!

Principal workers’ rights and democracy as a whole are violated. The workers will not allow anyone to represent them and negotiate on their behalf!

They want to give the example to all civil servants. They want to show that they have managed to find a way to fire civil servants, to send more people to unemployment that is rapidly increasing!

They want to destroy democracy and any sense of labour law!

We respond: the two-party coalition government will not terrorize us!

We are working for the public broadcaster ERT and we are defending democracy!

We will not give up on our struggle if all sections of ERT do not operate again without a single lay off and without any abolishment of our rights.

Our legal team will exhaust all possible means!

Those ones who appointed the corrupted administrators, those ones who converted gradually the public broadcaster to a means of state propaganda present themselves as the incorruptible ones who will impose transparency by wiping out ERT.

The silence of ERT is:

THE SILENCE OF OUR COUNTRY
THE SILENCE OF OUR DEMOCRACY
THE SILENCE OF OUR CIVILIZATION

Translated by ReINFORM

Truths and lies about ERT: A former news director answers the Prime Minister’s claims

disorderisti — Fri, 21 Jun 2013 07:21:53 +0000

On 16 June, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras wrote a long opinion piece for the Sunday edition of newspaper Kathimerini (which, incidentally, was published despite the fact that all media were officially on strike) to justify his decision to shut down Greece’s public broadcaster ERT. Former ERT news director Giorgos Kogiannis wrote in turn an answer to the Prime Minister on the newly established ERT workers’ blog, in which he points out several contradictions between Samaras’s claims and some actual facts and emphasizes that Samaras’s criticism of ERT should apply, first and foremost, to his own choices and those of his entourage. We are summarizing this indirect dialogue below.

Samaras: “Is it possible to implement reforms without kicking out those who were so well ensconced in their jobs?”

Kogiannis: Samaras must be referring to those he ensconced himself, meaning 30-odd advisors and special staff whom he appointed upon taking office. These include:

Giorgos Antoniou, Samaras’s koumbaros [1], who was appointed by Samaras with a monthly salary of €3,500.
Menelaos Sevastiadis, koumbaros of Samaras’s communications director Giorgos Mouroutis, also appointed with a monthly salary of €3,500.
Matina Retsa, who comes from the same place as Minister of Information and government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou, and who has run for office sometimes on a PASOK, sometimes on a New Democracy ticket. She received a monthly salary of €3,000, has never showed up at ERT, but does answer calls on Mr. Kedikoglou’s mobile phone.
Stavros Oikonomopoulos, who comes from Messinia (Samaras’s constituency) and also earns a monthly salary of €3,500.
Manousios Kambanelis, from Euboea (Kedikoglou’s constituency), a sports trainer by profession and a party official under Kedikoglou, who was appointed to the position of office manager of ERT’s executive director with a monthly salary of €3,500.

* * *

Samaras: “Can we ask people to watch strongholds of lack of transparency and corruption remain undisturbed? … The Corruption Prosecutor has ordered an investigation.”

Kogiannis: Samaras must be referring to complaints filed by ERT staff to the public prosecutor’s office and to the Public Administration Inspectorate about actions of the management appointed by Samaras himself. These include:

The allocation of a €1 million budget to the show “Mesogeion 136″, which was created to give a job to Mrs. Anthi Salagkoudi (former New Democracy candidate and daughter of former New Democracy Finance Minister Giorgos Salagkoudis), as well as other relatives of New Democracy officials who got jobs with ERT. ERT’s legal department refused to sign the contract with this show’s production company, a contract that was drafted by the office of news director Aimilios Liatsos [Editor's note: Liatsos was also appointed to the position of news director by the Samaras government].
The case of the show “Epta” (“Seven”), which is already under investigation for criminal impersonation: a retired journalist, friend of A. Liatsos, was recruited as the show’s editor-in-chief, but because, being a pensioner, he could not receive a salary, the editor-in-chief, on paper, was his son, who was then doing his military service.
The case of the owner of a well-known production company with links to New Democracy, who managed to place her son as the coordinator of ERT’s programming department. The said company produces two shows for ERT.

* * *

Samaras: “The Greek people are right when they ask: do you have the political will to take on the powerful and the obvious centres of waste? Or are you no different?”

Kogiannis: Samaras must be referring to co-productions and external productions, which had been abolished by the previous management for reasons of transparency but re-established by the Samaras government, and which cost more than € 35 million per year.

* * *

Samaras: “Privileges at ERT were well-ensconced and lack of transparency widespread.”

Kogiannis: Samaras must be referring to the line of communication followed by every production company to collaborate with ERT during his tenure as Prime Minister. This means in practice:

Obtaining a green light from government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou’s office manager,
Submitting a proposal to the public broadcaster,
Watching the proposal being examined by a committee chaired by Samaras’s koumbaros Giorgos Antoniou.

* * *

Samaras: “We don’t have an issue with ERT employees, several will be recruited by the new public broadcaster, but, this time, on meritocratic criteria.”

Kogiannis: Samaras must be referring to criteria such as those used to recruit new director Aimilios Liatsos and show host Anthi Salagkoudi, with their known objective qualities and obvious professional output.

* * *

Samaras: Those who defend ERT used to say it is “manipulated”.

Kogiannis: Samaras must be referring to individuals who were appointed by him and who tried to turn ERT into a government/party mouthpiece. Examples include:

Phone calls received by Liatsos in the middle of meetings with 20 people from Samaras’s communications director Giorgos Mouroutis, who was giving him instructions as to when to issue breaking news bulletins with the Prime Minister’s statements,
Threats received (by phone or through the internet) by Kogiannis himself, in his capacity as news director during the elections campaign, when Mouroutis was demanding to determine the order of items on the news bulletin. Kogiannis was removed from his position as soon as the New Democracy government took over.

* * *

Samaras: Those who defend ERT used to say it is “discredited”.

Kogiannis: Samaras must be referring to the impact of his own policies at ERT.

Before the 2012 elections, the average ratings of ERT’s news bulletin was 9.5% (according to AGB)
On election night, ERT had the highest viewership in Greece, at 18.5%.
One year after New Democracy took over, ratings fell to approx. 4%.

* * *

Samaras: “We must establish a modern and healthy broadcasting agency.”

Kogiannis: This is, no doubt, the reason why ERT will now not be able to participate in the tendering process for digital network providers – meaning that the sole viable bid will be submitted by DIGEA, a consortium of Greece’s six largest private media groups.

* * *

Here are some further facts and figures about the state of ERT, also provided by Kogiannis:

ERT produced losses of €9 million in 2009, profits of €34 million in 2010 and profits of €57 million in 2011. In 2012, Samaras chose to reallocate €75 million from ERT’s profits to LAGIE, the Greek electricity market operator. Despite this, ERT still had a surplus of €15 million, meaning that its total profits were €90 million.
Kogiannis also put online the table pictured to the right, which gives the average salaries of permanent ERT staff (top to bottom: administrative staff, technicians, programmes staff, journalists) and those of “special” staff (i.e. political appointees – top to bottom: special advisors, special positions and personnal assistants.) The left column is gross salary while the right column is take-home pay before income tax.

SYRIZA MP Rena Dourou also disseminated through Twitter this picture of the salary sheet of an unnamed central show host. Net salary before income tax: €1,178.63.

Lastly, we can note at this point that Gkikas Manalis, who was appointed by the government to the position of special administrator to liquidate ERT, also hails from Kalamata.

[1] The Greek word koumbaros literally means “best man” but can apply both ways (i.e. the person who was best man at your wedding but also the person whose best man you were at their wedding.) It can also apply to any non-relative with whom you have a near-family relationship, for instance the parent of a child you baptized, or the godfather of your nephew/niece, etc.

http://international.radiobubble.gr/2013/06/truths-and-lies-about-ert-former-news.html?spref=tw&m=1

Evading the parliament, is evading democracy

dimitriswright — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 22:13:19 +0000

Now in Greece laws are canceled without the approval of the parliament. Evading the parliament, is evading democracy. This has led to the shutting of the Greek national broadcaster. Solidarity is the only way to reverse this.

The facts

On the evening of June 11th the Greek Government spokesman, with no previous notice, announced that by midnight of that same day the national broadcaster (ERT) would be shut down and all its employees (2656 people) would be laid off. This was done without the approval of the parliament, by using an article of the Greek Constitution that allows governments to make law in “extraordinary” and “unpredictable” (e.g. earthquakes) events. By no means shutting down the national public broadcaster is an “unpredictable” event. It is just something that the largest party (ND) of the government coalition could not pass through the parliament. The ND party knows that it wont get approval, as the other two parties of the coalition openly and officially disagree with this action, and protest that in case of a vote in parliament they will definitely vote against.

A few hours later police units entered ERT’s broadcasting center. The digital television signal was violently interrupted around 23:15 of that evening. The employees of ERT together with employees from the public Hellenic Telecommunications Organization cooperated in solidarity to re-establish the connection and allow ERT to broadcast again. At the same time a spontaneous movement of protest, powered by the dismay of people throughout Greece about what had just happened, begun. Tens of thousands of people went to the central building of ERT in Athens to express their support to the employees and their outrage for this act of constitutional violation by the Government. Currently, the European Broadcaster’s Union (EBU) and numerous private broadcasters stream ERT’s signal to allow the employees to reach as much people as possible and let them know what is happening.