Greek PM offers to reinstall state TV
Date June 16, 2013
Bringing back state broadcasting: Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. Photo: Reuters
Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has offered to partially reinstate state broadcaster ERT after vehement protests over its dramatic closure threatened to derail his government.
''A temporary committee … can be appointed to hire a small number of employees, so that the broadcast of information programs can begin immediately,'' Mr Samaras said on Friday.
Greece has been without news broadcasts for much of this week as other journalists went on indefinite strike over ERT's closure, a move that also disrupted the reporting of school exam results.
Pressure had steadily grown on Mr Samaras to reverse his decision, with his coalition allies digging in their heels and the European Broadcasting Union holding emergency meetings in Athens to demand ERT's reopening.
''We ask the government to re-establish the signal on TV, radio and web,'' Jean-Paul Philippot, president of the EBU, the world's largest association of national broadcasters, had told a news conference earlier in the day.
Mr Samaras made the offer before a meeting on Monday with his socialist and moderate leftist allies, which have opposed ERT's closure.
