The Shutdown of ERT and Greece's Media Landscape: a Modern-Day Wild Wild West - Conservative State Responds to Fired Media Workers Protest

Saturday, 24 August 2013 01:32
By Michael Nevradakis, Truthout | News

It was the evening of March 27, 2001. In Spata, outside of Athens, the finishing touches were being made to the new Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport, which was to begin operations the following day. A few miles away, however, atop Mount Imittos, overlooking Athens, a dark chapter was being written in Greece's modern history. Late that evening, riot police stormed the mountaintop, which houses the transmitters of most radio and television stations broadcasting in Athens. And in an unprecedented tour de force, police shut down 66 radio stations. The official rationale given was that these stations, which had not received licenses in a recent licensing tender, would endanger flight safety by interfering with aviation frequencies to be used by the new airport.

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Let's flash-forward 12 years. On June 11, 2013, Greek government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou announced the shutdown of ERT, Greece's national public broadcaster. Within hours, transmitters were shut off and television screens across Greece went dark. Similar to 2001, riot police were dispatched to the mountaintop transmission facilities in Athens and Thessaloniki, where ERT engineers allegedly were forced out at gunpoint, allowing police to secure control of the transmitters.
The shutdown of ERT generated global headlines. To fully understand the actions of the Greek government in shutting down ERT, however, it is important to examine the history of how the broadcast media landscape in Greece has developed, the convoluted and haphazard regulatory regime under which it operates and the long tradition of government meddling in Greece's media.
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How Will Greek and Other Under the Debt Gun Voters React?

BREAKING NEWS UPDATE:
GREECE TO DISSOLVE PARLIAMENT TODAY; TO HOLD SNAP PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION, SUNDAY, MAY 6
Details in this Reuters story from Tuesday night, April 10. Parliament has been summoned to meet Wednesday, April 11, at 2 PM, GMT.

(Alexis Tsipras, the next #2 leader of a coalition government? Tsipras is a civil engineer, and is the leader of Synaspismos political party, which is a leading party of the coalition of left parties, Coalition of the Radical Left [SYRIZA].)
(Scroll to the bottom for other austerity-strained countries' elections, this year and next.)

Europe is have a sovereign debt crisis.
Greece, most hardest it with austerity in this crisis, is having its parliamentary elections in April of 2012 (Sunday, April 29 or May 6, according to wikipedia). Already, polls are indicating that Greek voters are already set to vote in in increasing percentages for the Communist or other left parties.
Traditionally, either of the two largest political parties, New Democracy (the conservative party) or PASOK (the socialist party), had governed with a majority or a large plurality of 40 or more percent. In this era of the European sovereign debt crisis, it appears that Greece is heading to a party system with no party winning more than one-third of the vote. We are looking to a situation in which a government will be formed from a collection of eight or so parties. And it looks as though left of Socialist parties will pick up a larger percentage of the vote.
Ekathimerini.com reports with an April 1 dateline that the conservative New Democrats are anticipated to receive 22.5 percent. PASOK is polling at 15.5 percent. The Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) is polling at 12.5 percent, the Democratic Left at 12 percent and the Communists at 12 percent. A new Independent Greeks party of New Democracy defectors is polling at 8.5 percent in opinion polls of voters.
Another ekathimerini.com posting, from March 21, 2012, also addresses the new political system and the great spread of support across different parties.

World Socialist Web Site claims that the various left parties are cozying up to the PASOK party [Socialist], with their eyes on PASOK to form a governing coalition.

Skip over its Trotskyist bias with the slanted adjectives and verbs:

Following a relentless series of attacks on their living standards and social gains, millions of Greeks are angrily turning their backs on the established political parties. According to recent polls, support for the social democratic PASOK party has slipped from 44 percent in 2009 to between 8 and 15 percent. Under these conditions, a number of pseudo-left parties are working to stabilize the situation and prepare the ground for a new government capable of enforcing additional social cuts.

The driving force behind a government of “leftist” parties is the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA). It has repeatedly called upon the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and the Democratic Left (DIMAR) to cooperate in such a project, but so far both organisations have turned down the offer.

The last the New York Times addressed the party situation was "Greece’s Socialist Party Changes Leaders," March 19, 2012.

Other Countries Under the Debt Gun --with elections this year include:
France, presidential election, April 22, May 6, 2012; legislative election rounds, June 10, 17, 2012. The Socialist candidate, Francois Hollande, is trailing right behind incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy. The Christian Science Monitor news site has portraits of the top five presidential candidates. From far left, to center, to far right.
Ireland, referendum on EU debt compact, or fiscal treaty, May 31, 2012. So far, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom have voted against signing the debt compact. Ireland is the only nation that holds a referendum on the treaty.
Iceland, presidential election, June 30, 2012 (a beauty contest for a largely ceremonial position)
Lithuania, October, 2012.
Mexico, with a more stable debt situation than the above countries, is having its presidential election this year, July 1, 2012. Its leading left party is Party of the Democratic Revolution, whose strengths are restricted to the center and the south. It has cooperated in the Broad Progressive Front with the Labor Party and the Citizens' Movement. Its Congressional election are the same day. It will elect a mixture of first-past-the-post (winner take all) seats and list proportional representation seats. Follow the news at La Jornada.
(Other news: Croatians voted in a referendum, January 22, to join the European Union.)
Elections, next year, 2013: Bulgaria, Iceland, Italy)
How Will Their Voters React?