The struggle over the Greek national broadcaster: a debate of extremes

Greece is once more in turmoil. The sudden and shocking shutdown of the state television and radio network, ERT, by the government last Tuesday was met with angry demonstrations not only by the virtually 2,600 employees of the organisation, who were made redundant in a matter of a few hours, but by the large majority of the Greek public, who rushed to demonstrate in support of ERT and its employees. The government’s move is deemed to undermine the already sensitive balance in the coalition government and to further reinforce public mistrust. At the same time, it has set in motion a battle of words, which in each faction is based on faulty premises and detracts attention from other serious aspects of the issue.