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Tuesday, November 12, 2013
ERT Closing Symbol of Greek Dysfunction
On Nov. 4, Panagiotis Kalfagiannis, the leader of Greek media workers' union Pospert, told me and a dozen colleagues that the government was 'using all its state apparatus' against the journalists occupying the headquarters of public broadcaster ERT.
Less than 72 hours later the building had been raided by riot police, Kalfagiannis was in custody and the screens went blank for the first time in the five months since the station was shut down by ministers.
We ? a group of journalists who work for trade unions from as far afield as Ghana, the USA and Lithuania ? were in Athens on a week-long project and were the last people to interview ERT staff from inside the vast broadcasting center before their eviction.