Greece’s new state television channel began airing news programs yesterday, more than two months after the government’s abrupt closure of state broadcaster ERT drew international condemnation and triggered an acute political crisis.
The move came as the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the world’s largest association of public broadcasters, halted the relay of programs that the sacked workers of the now defunct ERT have been producing since the closure. Since ERT was shuttered on June 11, ERT workers have taken over the company’s building in Athens and produced 24-hour programing that the EBU has been streaming by satellite and the Internet.
Greece’s conservative-led government cited the need to cut costs due to the country’s severe financial crisis when it abruptly closed ERT and fired all 2,700 staff. The ensuing outcry led to a small left-wing party withdrawing from the country’s fragile three-party governing coalition, leaving the government with a tiny majority in parliament.
The EBU announced earlier this week that it would halt its streaming of those programs yesterday morning because ERT’s interim successor was to begin news programing. So far, a temporary state broadcaster set up after ERT’s closure had been airing mainly documentaries and old Greek movies.
In a statement posted on its Web site, the EBU said it “believes that independent public service media is indispensable for democracies, culture and societies’’ and that when ERT was abruptly shut down, it “felt it had no option but to immediately take action to prevent Greek screens from remaining black, by carrying the satellite signal being produced by former ERT staff and streaming it on our Web site.’’
As a result, it committed to helping out until a basic public service media output had been established.
“This pledge has been honored,’’ EBU said.
ERT unionists vowed the programing by the sacked workers would continue via the Internet.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia