Guest post - Greece: the battle for ERT and the difficult but necessary path from protest to political change

By Panagiotis Sotiris [1]

After the June 2012 election in Greece one of the main preoccupations of both the Greek government and the Troika (EU-IMF-ECB) representatives was to present an image of a strong government that would stand firm and would not succumb the pressure coming from a society in despair. For some time this tactic seemed to work, aided by the inability of mass protests to produce concrete positive results and the choice of the SYRIZA leadership to opt for a “ripe fruit” strategy regarding governmental power. However the ongoing struggle over the fate of Greek Public Television and Radio (ERT) has put an end to this fantasy of a strong government in a position to smoothly pass socially devastating legislation.

In the struggle for ERT, for the first time we have had a mass movement that led to a significant political rupture. The combination of  a defiant stance from ERT employees who decided to occupy the premises and continue broadcasting, even in the form of web TV, creating a tangible example of the quality of public service that self-management can bring, with a broader social and political mobilization in support of ERT and in opposition to the authoritarian turn of the Samaras government that led to the mass presence outside ERT headquarters and local stations, intensified a deeper governmental crisis that had its roots in the social and economic crisis and the inability for the Greek government to offer an exit from the vicious circle of recession, austerity and unemployment. Contrary to the prevailing myth, even within the forces of the Left, that people are disappointed and that it would be difficult to urge them to go back in the streets, the struggle over ERT brought forward the potential for solidarity, mass mobilization and support of an important struggle. The struggle over ERT became the metonymy for all forms of aggression against not only social rights, but also against democracy per se. The black screens became the symbol of the aggressive, undemocratic character of both contemporary neoliberalism and Troika supervision that dictate political measures. This can explain the extent and the duration of the protests about ERT.

#rbnews weekly bulletin 15-21 June 2013

The text companion to this week's #rbnews international show is now online. You can read it after the jump.

More truths and lies about ERT: was government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou an ERT employee?

In the statement he delivered in the evening of Tuesday 11 June on behalf of the government, when the shutdown of Greece's public broadcaster ERT was officially announced, spokesman Simos Kedikoglou justified the government's decision by saying, among other things: "The Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation, ERT, is a typical case of unique opacity and incredible waste of public money (...) It is governed by opacity in the sector of contract management."

The irony of this statement was not lost on ERT staff, who were prompt to note that Simos Kedikoglou was himself recruited as an ERT journalist in 1995, at a time when his father, Vasilis Kedikoglou, was a member of parliament with then-governing party PASOK. This was also denounced by SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras, in response to whom Kedikoglou's office published a statement, that was reported by To Ethnos newspaper on 14 June:

As noted by his collaborators, Mr. Kedikoglou was never appointed at ERT. Quite the opposite, he worked at ERT on a fixed-term contract, "and his first job was a night shift from midnight to 6 am during the first Gulf War."
"ERT was then looking for journalists who speak foreign languages, who were uncommon at the time, for the needs of its round-the-clock coverage, and Mr. Kedikoglou speaks fluent English, French and Russian." (...) [1]

In an article published today on tvxs.gr, former ERT news director Giorgos Kogiannis chose to expose Mr. Kedikoglou by releasing the document that ratified Mr. Kedikoglou's recruitment by ERT on an open-ended contract - meaning that Mr. Kedikoglou was recruited by ERT as, essentially, a civil servant with tenure.

Kogiannis further notes that Kedikoglou's recruitment came at a time when hundreds of ERT employees were on two-month contracts and were being paid with delays of several months. By the time a decree by then-Minister of Interior Prokopis Pavlopoulos gave permanent positions to temporary workers in the civil service in 2006, some journalists had been on short-term contracts for 25 years (implying, also, that these journalists constantly risked being fired if they didn't toe the government line). In 1995, no open-ended positions were available in the Greek civil service at large, meaning that Kedikoglou's position was created specifically for him. Kedikoglou was subsequently sponsored by ERT to attend training with CNN, before finally joining a talk show on private TV station MEGA.

[1] Editor's note CORRECTED: This post initially mistranslated the Greek expression "γερμανικό νούμερο" as "German-language coverage" It actually means night shift. 

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

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.

The lost signal of democracy

Re-posted from Exandas Documentaries

Yorgos Avgeropoulos (documentary filmmaker,
author & director of the Exandas Documentary Series) writes:

The unprecedented decision by the government to shut down ERT – the Greek Public Broadcaster has been a heavy blow for all. Both me and my colleagues, journalists and technicians, we ran immediately at the ERT Broadcasting Center. Since the beginning, every day we are recording what we see. We just edited quickly nine minutes to not erase from our memory what happened the first day. This is our way to react. We will continue as much as we can.
This is a rough cut sequence, part of the feature-length documentary that we are filming since the beginning of the crisis, for the last three years. It is called “AGORÁ - From Democracy to the Market” and it is an international co-production of major TV networks. AGORÁ will be released in April 2014.

THE LOST SIGNAL OF DEMOCRACY from Yorgos Avgeropoulos on Vimeo.

Main Credits:
Written & Directed by Yorgos Avgeropoulos
Producers: Yorgos Avgeropoulos, Anastasia Skoubri
Picture: Yiannis Avgeropoulos, Anna Prokou
Music: Yiannis Paxevanis
Production Manager: Anastasia Skoubri
Editing: Anna Prokou, Vasilis Magos
Researchers: Georgia Anagnou, Ahilleas Kouremenos, Andreas Vagias
A Small Planet production © 2013-2014 smallplanet.gr

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The Council of State ruling about ERT: what on earth does it mean?

Last night the Council of State issued a ruling which was hailed as overturning common ministerial decision  OIK 02/11.06.2013 that shut down with immediate effect Greece's public broadcaster ERT, leaving TV watchers in front of a black screen. The Council of State specifically orders:

1. That enforcement of the common ministerial decision is suspended "exclusively with regard to those items pertaining to a) the interruption of transmissions of radio and television signals and of operations of websites owned by ERT, and b) the fact that ERT frequencies should remain inactive (article 2, § 2, item b of the common ministerial decision)."

2. That competent ministers [i.e. the Minister of Finance and the Minister of State responsible for media affairs] should take "necessary organizational measures for the resumption of radio and television signal transmissions and the operation of websites owned by a public broadcaster until the establishment of a new agency which will serve the public interest, as stipulated in article 1 § 2 of the common ministerial decision."

But what does this mean in practice?

In focus: Why is the Greek government trying to shut down ERT? - The role of digital network provider DIGEA

On Tuesday 11 June 2013, the Greek government announced its decision to shut down the country's public broadcaster ERT and proceeded with taking all ERT television and radio channels off the air.

This came as a public consultation is under way to determine the terms under which a network provider will be selected to complete the country's transition to digital television.

Radiobubble interviewed on Friday 14 June 2013 ERT senior technician Nikos Michalitsis, whose analysis of the call for expressions of interest for digital network providers bears ominous signs for the future of press freedom in Greece. We are posting the interview below.

You can listen to this week's full #rbnews international show here.

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Next post in this series: A map of Greece’s media corrupt relationships (part 1) >>>

#rbnews international show 15 June 2013 - Why is the government shutting down ERT?

This week on #rbnews international, our guest was Michael Nevradakis, who also runs a web radio station, Dialogos Radio, and who has been actively following the government shutdown of Greece's national broadcaster ERT. We summarized how the Greek government is trying to close ERT and the reasons behind this decision.

You can follow Michael on Twitter @dialogosmedia.

And of course, you can listen to the podcast after the jump.

ERT shutdown - Live blog 14 June 2013

Good morning and welcome to radiobubble's rolling coverage of developments related to the government's decision to shut down ERT, Greece's public radio and television broadcaster. You can read about what happened in the past three days here, here and here.

Here are a few useful tidbits of information to start the day:

• The EBU is still livestreaming ERT (watch here). It appears however that ERT radio and television is back on air on analog frequencies in some parts of the country. ERT World seems to be broadcasting normally abroad while ERT radio is broadcasting nationwide through Flash fm radio. 
• The Hellenic Parliament reportedly came under attack from Anonymous last night. It is unclear yet what information exactly they gathered, but the cyber attack was apparently on an extremely large scale and included email correspondence of MPs. 
• The Communist Party's television station 902, whose digital frequency has been going off air in the last few days, conducted some tests to determine if this was an accident or not, by broadcasting their regular programming and then switching to ERT live. Every time they did, the signal was thrown off air within seconds. In its statement, 902 denounces the government but also digital transmission service DIGEA, a private company which is enforcing the government's policy to silence anyone who broadcasts ERT. 
• Protests against the shutdown of ERT are continuing in Greece and abroad; for example at least three rallies are planned in the UK today in London, Edinburgh and Bristol. Another one is planned in Sydney, Australia on Sunday. 
• @plitharas compiled here a good sample of international media about the ERT shutdown. 

We will be updating this post throughout the day. 

ERT shutdown - Round-up of developments 13 June 2013

Protests continued today across Greece to protest the government's abrupt decision in the evening of Tuesday 11 June to shut down public radio and television broadcaster ERT (see here and here). Several labour unions called for a general strike today, including the civil servants' union ADEDY, the General Confederation of Labour GSEE and communist-affiliated PAME. The media strike, which started yesterday for radio and television stations, extended today to newspapers. As a result all media except ERT and media re-transmitting ERT were on strike. A large demonstration took place in front of the ERT headquarters in the morning, while several other rallies and protests were held in other cities and towns across Greece and abroad (photo gallery below). The media strike in Greece will continue tomorrow, with journalists' unions calling upon all unions and citizens to support not only ERT with protecting the compound but also to ensure that media tycoons cannot whip up support or intimidate workers to break the strike in privately-owned media. The journalists' unions further call upon all internet-based media to embed the ERT broadcast in their websites.

The shutdown of ERT - Live blog 12 June 2013

Following the government's decision to shut down Greece's national broadcaster ERT yesterday and demonstrations across the country throughout the night, we will be live-blogging today the latest developments on this issue.

A summary of key events yesterday (more here):

• The government issued in the morning an act of legislative content which enables ministers to shut down public agencies and sack their staff with a simple signature. Acts of legislative content are an emergency procedure that allows the government to enact legislation immediately and seek the approval of parliament within three-and-a-half months. 
• The decision to shut down ERT and sack its ~2,700 staff was issued by 9 pm. 
• Reaction was immediate from labour unions, opposition parties, international media watchdogs and the public at large. Rallies gathered outside ERT facilities across the country while ERT journalists took over the facilities and continued broadcasting. 
• The two junior partners of the government coalition, PASOK and Democratic Left, have stated their opposition to the shutdown of ERT and announced that they will not approve the bill when it comes to parliament. 
• The police was sent to take down ERT transmission facilities late at night. At this point, some other media are broadcasting ERT's signal, mostly online.  
• A general media strike began this morning at 6 am for radio and television stations, with newspapers due to join tomorrow. Media who are broadcasting ERT's signal are exempt from the strike. 
• The government announced this morning that a new public broadcaster, called NERIT (New Hellenic Radio, Internet and TV), will be established by 29 August and will operate with 1000 to 1200 employees. The bill to establish the new broadcaster can be found here. 
• More rallies against the shutdown of ERT are planned today across the country. 

Greece: The government wants to shut down public radio and television

Reports started coming in early this afternoon that the government was intending either to shut down or to downsize the National Radio and Television corporation (ERT), with a purpose to sack its employees and reach the targets it agreed with Greece's troika of lenders (the EU, ECB and IMF) to sack 15,000 civil servants by the end of 2014. By late afternoon, the reports had become that ERT would be shut down by midnight. ERT currently employs 2,656 civil servants with tenure and 246 fixed-term staff, who all stand now to lose their jobs.

Sackings on such a scale are unlikely to improve the situation of press freedom in Greece. Dimitris Trimis, the chairman of the Athens Daily Newspaper Editors' Union, told is last week on the #rbnews international show:

The thousands of sackings in media, the pay cuts, the fear that media will collapse and shut down, together with the parameter I just mentioned [the unhealthy links between media, big business and politics], creates a climate of violent censorship and self-censorship among people who work in the media. Therefore, we cannot talk of freedom of expression, and this is why international researchers keep demoting Greece in indexes where countries are ranked according to freedom of speech and objectivity, or at least honesty, in information.  

The Vaxevanis trial: no lawyers, no witnesses? Apparently no problem.

Posted by @IrateGreek

As we posted earlier today, the re-trial of Kostas Vaxevanis for publishing, back in October 2012, a list of 2000+ names of Greek bank account holders in Switzerland, known as the Lagarde list, was due to take place this morning in the Athens courthouse. It took the court a full hour and a half, from 9:00 until 10:30am, and three private conversations in recess, to determine that, in the absence of two of three defense lawyers and of three of four defense witnesses, the trial should be postponed.

The Lagarde list and the trial of Kostas Vaxevanis

By @Polyfimos, translated by @Pexlibanis and @anarresti

On  6 June 2013, former Greek economy czar George Papaconstantinou watched the plenary assembly of the Greek Parliament, which had already  impeached him for doctoring a document and engaging in misconduct, vote to expand charges against him to criminal breach of faith in the scandal of the altered list of 2062 Greek bank account holders in Switzerland, known as  the Lagarde list.

Four  days later, Kostas Vaxevanis, the journalist who was arrested and tried because he first published the names on the list on 27 October 2012, is, for the second time, sitting in the defendant's chair for the same court case, after the prosecution demanded a re-trial, because the court "did not give proper weight to the evidence material and considered it very poorly."

This comes after his first trial on 1 November 2012, which, as pointed out by Kostas Vaxevanis  in an open letter to European Commission President Jose Manuel  Barroso, was conducted ​​with such haste that "the original case file did not include a single element of evidence, not even the incriminating issue of the magazine. The charges were so hastily put together that they even forgot to put the official stamp of the prosecutor on the file."

#rbnews weekly bulletin 01-07 June 2013

Prepared by the #rbnews international team, translated by @IrateGreek 

The text companion to this week's #rbnews international show is now online. You can read it after the jump.

#rbnews international show 08 June 2013: Freedom of the press in Greece (or lack thereof)

This week, on the occasion of the upcoming appeals trial of Kostas Vaxevanis, the journalist who was arrested and tried once already in November 2012 for publishing the Lagarde list in his magazine HOT DOC, the #rbnews international show focused on the issue of freedom of the press in Greece. We were able to interview Kostas Vaxevanis himself, but also Dimitris Trimis, chairman of the Athens Daily Newspaper Editors’ Union, Marios Lolos,  chairman of the Greek Photojournalists’ Union, and his colleague Tatiana Bolari, and Angélique Kourounis, a correspondent for various French-speaking media in Athens, who also acts as the local representative of Reporters Without Borders. This show is part of a series prepared by the radiobubblenews team, which will carry on across the coming week and will seek to discuss the various impediments to the realization of this essential democratic liberty.

You can listen to the podcast, as usual, after the jump.

Greece : Freedom of the press in free fall

On the occasion of the upcoming trial of Kostas Vaxevanis, who will be facing an appeals court on 10 June for publishing the Lagarde list, a list of 2000+ bank account holders in the HSBC branch of Geneva, of which some at least are suspected of tax evasion, the radiobubblenews team is launching a series of shows and posts about the issue of freedom of the press in Greece.

Since the start of the Greek crisis in 2009, and the subsequent adoption of unprecedented austerity policies, there has been a constant erosion of human rights in Greece. Stories of people who cannot make ends meet, who can’t afford to pay their utility bills and who are dumpster-diving for food abound in international media, as do images of riots during demonstrations and horror tales of the racist discourse and the acts of violence perpetrated by neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn. What is far less covered however, with the exception of the first Vaxevanis trial in November 2012, is the dramatic impact of recent developments in Greece on freedom of the press. According to Reporters Without Borders, Greece, which ranked at number 35 in the freedom of the press index in 2009, now ranks at number 84 – behind virtually every other European country but also but also behind countries that are not famous for their healthy democratic regimes, such as Burkina Faso, Haiti, Central African Republic, Kenya or Kuwait. Similarly, the US-based think tank Freedom House demoted Greece this year from “free” to “partly free,” while Amnesty International noted serious concerns with regard to freedom of the press, both in a special 2012 report on police brutality in Greece and in its global annual report for 2013.

#rbnews weekly bulletin 25-31 May 2013

Prepared by the #rbnews international team, translated by @IrateGreek

The text companion to this week's #rbnews international show is now online. You can read it after the jump.

Complaint of censorship of a Hadjidakis song in the classroom goes viral, sparking controversy

Source: Manos Hadjidakis's official site

By @Inflammatory_ and @IrateGreek

The latest case of censorship in Greece found an unlikely target in a song by famous Greek composer Manos Hadjidakis. 

Deputy Minister of Education Theodoros Papatheodorou ordered last night an ex officio investigation into claims by a primary school music teacher in Thessaloniki that the principal of her school forbade her from teaching Hadjidakis's song Kemal to her 5th-grade class. This was followed today by a question in parliament by New Democracy MP Giannis Michelakis, who called upon the Ministry of Education to take an official position on the matter and condemned the school principal in the harshest of terms, calling the incident "a monument of ignorance, fanaticism and stupidity."

Update 19:35 EEST: The preliminary investigation of the Ministry of Education appears to show that the teacher's claim is correct. The principal has been asked to give a written explanation for her reaction. 

#rbnews weekly bulletin 11-17 May 2013

The text companion to this week's #rbnews international show is now online. You can read it after the jump.