Greece shuts down public broadcaster ERT

by Stella Floras 692 views

Minutes ago it was announced by the Greek government that the country’s public  broadcaster, ERT, will be shut down today to be re-opened some time after the summer.

After the end of tonight’s transmission, Greece’s national broadcaster will be closed down and all of the 2.850 members of staff will be fired. Government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou announced that the broadcaster will be re-opened after the summer with a new, much smaller format and less employees.

ERT is the only Greek channel full member of the EBU and the one responsible for the country’s participations in the Eurovision Song Contest since the beginning. At the moment, there is no way of knowing how this will affect Greece’s participation in the contest in the near future.

Stella Floras

Thanks to Johnny Logan and Hold me now I fell in love with the Eurovision Song Contest, a love that's been going strong ever since with undiminished passion. My first memories date back to 1977 and the lyrics of Rock bottom, Dschinghis Khan and A ba ni bi are still engraved in my brain.

I joined esctoday.com in 2006 as a junior editor after being invited by Barry Viniker, I soon became Senior Editor and during the 2007 contest in Helsinki I was appointed Head of Communications. Today I hold the post of Head of Human Resources and I am proud to be working with the best editorial team in the world.