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ERT Greece - BREAKING: Greek court has overturns closure

Greek court has overturned the closure of the state broadcaster (June 2013)

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AQ
Aquasetia
It sounds like the relevant Greek Ambassador spoke to the government in question to get the feed removed. I expect the EBU to get another feed up tomorrow.
DV
DVB Cornwall
Latest from the EBU

The Director General of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), Ingrid Deltenre, today condemned the threat of legal action made by the Greek government against satellite operators that transmit the ERT signal over Europe and Asia.

"We urge the Greek government to withdraw the threats made against satellite operators, and restore the continuity of public service media channels in Greece and across the world," said Ms Deltenre.

more details ……..

CMS on .EBU.CH
17-Jun-2013 @ 10:23
TH
Thinker
The last concert with the ERT National Symphony Orchestra, established 1938.

A tear-filled goodbye. It probably didn't help that they chose to end with Nimrod.

SK
Sky786
Breaking: Greek court has overturned the closure of the state broadcaster.
JA
james
Breaking: Greek court has overturned the closure of the state broadcaster.


Wow, think the question for everyone is - 'What happens now?'...

Will be interesting in the days ahead no doubt!

EDIT: One of the only news articles I can find on it at the moment - http://news.yahoo.com/greek-court-orders-shuttered-state-tv-ert-reopen-184308986.html

BBC article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-22945155
SK
Sky786
james posted:
Breaking: Greek court has overturned the closure of the state broadcaster.


Wow, think the question for everyone is - 'What happens now?'...

Will be interesting in the days ahead no doubt!


Hmm. I think if it does start again it definitely won't be the same. Probably a cut down, lower budget channel than before.
MI
midnightvignette
A placeholder has appeared for NERIT - apparently illegally. See: http://news247.gr/eidiseis/psixagogia/media/ekpempei_shma_h_nerit-h_prwth_eikona_stoys_dektes.2297111.html?utm_source=news247home&utm_medium=impnews&utm_content=tab2&utm_campaign=HW
WH
whoiam989
After the court victory, it was reported that the ERT Orchestra played news theme live. But as I'm short at Greek, I can't find a video of it.
WH
whoiam989
Apparently, ERT's terrestrial signals aren't back on air ever since the trial.

NET's live stream has some kind of clock next to its watermark.

21 days later

WH
whoiam989
It's been weeks since Democratic Left (Dimar) left the coalition because of all the ERT catastrophe.

Apparently, the Greek Government launched a transitional TV broadcaster named DT. I wonder what are they doing with radio then.
DG
DonnyGuy
Just to add to this thread, I am a Greek speaker and tuned into ERT regularly as they offered live streaming via their own website. My viewing was hit and miss but I tuned in on the night of the 11th June for the 21:00 central news and my jaw hit the floor when Elli Stai read out the main story.

Moving on from those events, as has already been reported in this thread, the frequencies of ET1, NET, ET3 (the three channels of ERT) as well as Vouli (the Parliament channel), BBC World and Deutsch Welle disappeared from TV screens in Greece as the government closed down the frequencies (the latter as they were carried on ERT frequencies after ERT closed their own digital channels).

ERT workers continue to occupy the ERT headquarters on Messogion Avenue in Agia Paraskevi (one of the northern suburbs of Athens). They also have their own website and YouTube feed, their site is www.ertopen.com and they do offer content in English also.

Since the closure, NET has been broadcasting via the various internet feeds and continues to offer full news service at the usual times (12:00, 15:00, 18:00 and 00:00 with the main news at 21:00 - all times local in Greece which is GMT+3 or UK+2). They broadcast Greek and International news but obviously no longer have video reports from locations, their reports talk over footage from CNN, Sky News or from ANT1 television in Greece.

The timer that was mentioned in the top left hand corner was a counter that counted the time that had passed since the government failed to implement the court decision to reinstate the frequencies of ERT. This has now been removed and replaced with a caption that scrolls periodically across the top of the screen which simply counts the days since the court decision.

There were many many problems at ERT so it would be foolish to pretend otherwise however these problems were caused by the two parties who used ERT (and all other public organisations in Greece) as a tool to give jobs to friends. There was talk of massive salaries and the justification was always that they were competing with the private sector. The journalists / workers who remain are the ones who earned 'normal' wages and worked (and continue to work) hard. The ones who were there earning big salaries have not been seen since (an example of this would be Elli Stai who was the newsreader of the central broadcast).

This point has actually been picked up in the European Parliament with a representative asking the Greeks when they (a) intend to reinstate the frequencies and adhere to the court ruling and (b) where are your thanks for the ERT workers who have worked day and night now for several weeks in hard conditions to broadcast and (c) doesn't the action of the ERT workers prove you have the basis in which to reform ERT.

Moving onto last week the Greek government put a place holder saying ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΣΙΑ ΤΗΛΕΟΡΑΣΗ (Greek Public Television) with a DOG in the corner of ΕΔΤ. They then started showing an old Greek film and the dog changed to ΔΤ (so now it's just Public Television). The broadcasts are coming from the old studios of Mega Channel (a private TV station) in Paiania.

There is a lot wrong with the governments actions in respect to ERT. For example, the owners of the remaining private channels in Greece have set up their own company called Digea who are responsible for the distribution of the television signals in Greece. So now in return for 'pro government / pro bailout' coverage on their channels, they have been allowed to control television in Greece. It's been made in such a way that there is no competition to Digea. This is something that has been raised by the ERT workers as Digea closed the signals of ERT however then proceeded to close the signals of any channel who re-broadcasted their internet feed (this happened to 902 TV).

Moving on from the ERT situation, these employees were targeted because the government needed to reach targets for public sector layoffs and managed 2700 in one go here. The stories in Greece now are that they've moved onto teachers, janitors, cleaners and the municipal police force. These workers are next in line to lose their jobs and of course this is causing further unrest in Greece.
WW
WW Update
Thank you so much for your comprehensive first-hand account, DonnyGuy! It's really nice to get a Greek perspective of this situation.

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