Crisis as Greek premier pulls the plug on state broadcaster

The Greek government faced a political crisis today after shutting down the country’s equivalent of the BBC.

Viewers watching the news on the main TV channel saw the screens go blank. State TV and radio signals were cut in the early hours, sparking fierce protests outside the HQ of ERT, the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation.

Conservative prime minister Antonis Samaras said the move was aimed at saving money, claiming ERT was a “haven of waste”. But critics said it harked back to when the country was run by a military junta and programmes were routinely blacked out.

Left-wing opposition leader Alexis Tsipras slammed the closure as “illegal”, adding: “Many times the word ‘coup’ is used as an exaggeration. In this case, it is not an exaggeration.” Thousands of protesters gathered outside ERT’s headquarters north of Athens through the night in support of the 2,500 sacked workers.

Journalists continued a live broadcast that was streamed online. Both of the government’s centre-Left coalition partners demanded that ERT’s closure be reversed as journalist unions called for a 24-hour strike in protest.

The decision was announced during an inspection in Athens by officials from Greece’s bailout creditors.

The European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund has been pressing the government to start a long-delayed programme to fire civil servants.

The shock closure of ERT — the first mass public sector redundancies in the cash-strapped country — represents one of the biggest crises to face the three-party coalition government since it was formed nearly a year ago.

Government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou promised to reopen ERT at a later date but faced growing protest in Greece and abroad. The main unions began emergency meetings to decide on likely strikes. The European Broadcasting Union expressed “profound dismay”.