EUROZONE-GREECE/STATE TV-TSIPRAS Greece's Tsipras joins celebrations at state broadcaster after EU talks

Record ID: 150872

  • Title: EUROZONE-GREECE/STATE TV-TSIPRAS Greece's Tsipras joins celebrations at state broadcaster after EU talks
  • Date: 12th June 2015
  • Summary: HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE WATCHING CONCERT HELD IN ERT'S PREMISES TO CELEBRATE ITS REOPENING ARTISTS PERFORMING ON STAGE, PEOPLE CLAPPING
  • Embargoed: 27th June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVADBHWBOU8O0ZCSMAGPZ9MA7UST
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Greece's leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras visited the headquarters of ERT on Thursday (June 11), saying the reopening of the state broadcaster was a great victory for democracy.
    "ERT belongs to the Greek people. ERT is the identity of the Greek people and its history and we are all very proud and touched today," Tsipras said, after returning from Brussels where he held difficult talks with Greece's European creditors.
    "I didn't come here to salute, I came here to participate in this celebration which is a celebration of democracy. I will only say a few words: ERT was not reopened by the government. ERT was reopened by the struggles of the workers, ERT was reopened by the two year long struggles of the Greek people against barbaric and illogical policies," he added.
    Tsipras, who is racing to reach a cash-for-reforms deal with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), had called ERT's closure "a great wound" of his country's bailout. He made its reopening one of his priorities as part of efforts to roll back cuts demanded by the lenders.
    "We are fighting as we negotiate, and for as long as the people support the government's efforts, the government will pursue the fair demands of the Greek people so that an agreement can be secured. An agreement that won't be just an agreement, but a solution which will maintain social cohesion, which will bring growth and at the same time solve the medium-term financial problems of the country, and will therefore create conditions of debt sustainability," Tsipras told reporters amidst a cheering crowd.
    Earlier on Thursday employees at Greece's state television ERT hugged each other and cried as the channel aired its first broadcast in two years, after it was shut down under one of the previous government's most drastic austerity measures.
    Employees gathered on set in tears as anchors prepared to present the first early-morning talk show. Before the programme, the channel played out footage of some of Greece's most famous landmarks and scenery, as the national anthem blared out.
    ERT, which cost 300 million euros a year to run, was replaced with a slimmed-downed broadcaster called NERIT, which is expected to be merged or absorbed by ERT. Workers climbed to the top of the broadcaster's headquarters earlier this week to remove the letters "N" and "I" from its logo.
    The closure of ERT on June 11, 2013, with newscasters cut-off mid-sentence, set off a firestorm of protests, brought thousands to the streets and led to the withdrawal of a partner from the coalition government at the time.
    The move divided the Greeks, many of whom regarded it as a wasteful source of patronage jobs for political parties but were shocked by the abruptness with which the government pulled the plug.
    Hundreds rallied outside the building in daily protests, as teary-eyed musicians from ERT's national symphony orchestra performed songs. Laid-off journalists had defied management orders to leave the headquarters and for weeks broadcast a bootleg news channel over the Internet.
    The government has said all of the roughly 2,500 staff who were made redundant, including 600 journalists, would be rehired at a cost of about 30 million euros a year, covered through an existing monthly charge on electricity bills.
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