A short message in solidarity with ERT

The criticisms from many directions from inside but also outside the country were harsh. The EBU, politicians  and people from Europe and media from around the world attacked the decision of the Prime Minister Mr. Samaras to act this way, in other words closing down the state channel, as a part of his austerity measures which many saw as censoring the free and public speech. I do not want to state once again why the decision of the Greek government was a threat to democracy and i do not want to reflect it with issues of freedom of speech. People, especially the ones of Europe followed the discussion and the tension around this topic and as it can be seen, the discussions aer huge and uncover the many dark sides within the Samaras regime and its neoliberal nature. Indeed, the last time Greece faced a similar decision was under the military regime (1967-1974) and in any case it is easy to decode the action of the closure of ERT.

What this short message aims for, is to send a message of solidarity with the journalists and workers of ERT who stayed inside the buildings of the channel for days, continuing their work, informing the Greek people, ‘illegally’ – using alternative ways to broadcast the news, the discussions and so on. Solidarity to those who took the control of the Chanel in their own hands and to the ordinary people outside who stayed side by side to guard and prevent the police from entering and stopping the broadcasts.

The cries of the people of ERT indicate many things and the words of the ordinary people who showed up outside the ERT buildings in different cities of Greece expose even more things. The weak nature of the Greek government is obvious and the next few days will tell us if the country is on the way for new elections; this is maybe unlikely but the strength of the coalition government is insignificant. Austerity does not work, and it is not the way out of the crisis. Austerity is only a threat to the social coherence and democracy.