Source: www.huffingtonpost.com - Thursday, June 13, 2013 ATHENS, Greece -- Journalists from axed Greek state broadcaster ERT returned to the airwaves Thursday amid an escalating crisis that saw the country rocked by a general strike, a sharp rebuke from Europe's top human rights official and widening divisions in the fragile coalition government. Officials at the Geneva-based European Broadcasting Union on Thursday said they had successfully relayed a live pirate broadcast from the sacked journalists to the rest of Europe, in defiance of Greece's conservative government which shut down state TV and radio Tuesday as part of the country's austerity measures. "We have just had our signal broadcast on satellite. We thank everyone who helped us," ERT newsreader and union representative Chrysa Roumlelioti said on the broadcast. More than 10,000 people staged a peaceful demonstration outside Greece's public broadcasting headquarters Hellenic Broadcasting Corp., or ERT, in support of fired staff who for a third day occupied the building. The government pulled ERT off the air late Tuesday, axing all 2,656 jobs, and threatening to sue anyone who retransmitted broadcasts by the laid-off journalists. The decision to shutter the broadcaster has drawn harsh criticism from the Europe's top official responsible for human rights. In a written statement to the AP, Nils Muiznieks, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, called the move an "ill-advised step" that had sent "a chilling signal to th
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