Greece silences the media

On 11 June, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras decided to close Greece’s state broadcaster the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT). The closure contradicts part of the Lisbon Treaty (1) and is unprecedented in a democratic country. Whatever the station’s shortcomings (a politically-appointed staff, a famously bloated payroll (2)), the decision was derided by major international broadcasters and vehemently opposed by the European Broadcasting Union as well as ERT’s own journalists and, it seems, a good chunk of the Greek public.

ERT was closed using emergency powers (the fourth time they have been closed since May). But these powers didn’t quite work. Although no ERT employee is drawing a salary, the broadcaster’s buildings are occupied and its programming continues to be broadcast online. And although I had trouble contacting people working at ERT (their mobile phone contracts had been cut), I was eventually taken round their headquarters in the north of Athens and introduced to those occupying the building - or as Marilena Katsimi, an anchorwoman, would have it, “continuing to broadcast” (occupation sounds as though they shouldn’t be there).

The closure led to a crisis that nearly toppled Antonis Samaras and that ultimately led to a new coalition government. With ministers unable to agree on the broadcaster’s closure, the small Democratic Left party, displeased with the decision and presumably worried about taking the heat for pending austerity and asset sell offs, left the coalition. The once-mighty PASOK feared it might not get enough votes to even field candidates should there be fresh elections, and Antonis Samaras’ New Democracy didn’t want to rock the boat and displease Greece’s creditors. They thus resolved to form a new coalition consisting, tragically, of the two parties that have been stalwarts of Greece’s clientelist politics. Put simpler, Greece is now being run by the very same parties that most Greeks blame for the mess their country is in.

All in all, ERT’s closure seemed to have been a shambles. But why was the broadcaster closed and not some other large public body? And why now?

At first glance, it seems obvious. Loans from and agreed upon by the Troika (3) are contingent on public sector cuts. Just last week, the Greek government narrowly passed another bill that will cut public sector employees by some 25,000 (the vote was put to Parliament, conveniently, it seemed, a day before Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s Finance Minister, visited Athens). Greece is, like so many countries facing economic crisis before it, ’gambling on redemption’ by imposing austerity to please its creditors. Gambling on redemption is a performance, an act that signals good behaviour and that has been typified by the government’s pledge to cut its wage bill by 1.5% of GDP by 2015 through sacking 150,000 public sector employees.

Greece’s public sector is infamously large and, crucially, Samaras needed to find 2,000 people to fire by 30 June in order to unlock more cash. Closing ERT removed around 2,700 employees from the state’s payroll in one fell swoop. Samaras thus met the June deadline. Simple.

But the argument that ERT’s closure was solely aimed at axing public sector employees quickly falls down on examination. Samaras announced shortly after ERT’s surprise closure that there would be a new broadcaster called NERIT (’new’ and ’internet’ tacked onto ERT). NERIT will employ 2,000 journalists. So, after much wrangling, only 700 people are off the state’s payroll (that’s roughly 0.5% of the number of job losses needed). The severance fees of those now without a job, and fines in the region of €300m for the cancellation of contracts with, for instance, the BBC, suggest not a calculated decision taken in an authoritarian way, but of authoritarian panic. ERT’s closure seems like a quick fix that met a crucial deadline, albeit temporarily.

The Greek government’s loans are, alongside public sector cuts, contingent on privatisation. Greece’s failure to secure a buyer for its gas fields (Gazprom pulled out at the last moment) also helps explain ERT’s closure and its timing (4). The government has little knowledge of how many people are on the public sector payroll, so with few plans for finding 2,000 people to sack, and with recent news of a very public failure to sell its gas assets, the government was under extreme pressure to produce good news for the Troika. ERT was thus axed. The fact that the Greek government was beaten to buying the www.nerit.gr domain name by an unidentified individual (who is now in line for a tidy profit when he sells it to the government) surely supports the idea that, if nothing else, this was all very rushed.

But, again, that’s not the whole story.

It is clear that ERT was never a public broadcaster, but rather a state broadcaster. Its journalists weren’t neutral, they were political. Over the years, the broadcaster’s politics have leant towards whichever party was in power (that is, towards either New Democracy or PASOK), accumulating salaried journalists along the way. After PASOK’s fall in November 2011, ERT was fairly left leaning. According to Nikos Angelidis, an ERT journalist who is still working for the now defunct broadcaster and whom I met at the occupation, Samaras’s coalition government have continued the practice of politically appointing programmers, journalists and producers. At a time of deep crisis, knowing that big cuts were on the way and that the state was broke, around 30 new employees were added to ERT’s payroll, some with specific roles and others as consultants with vague job descriptions. These political appointees were split roughly in proportion to the ruling coalition and were rumoured to have been drawing salaries approximately three times the average ERT employee’s wage (the latter being around €1,300 per month).

Appointments such as these suggest that closing ERT was very much a political decision, even if it was made in a panic. ERT’s programming didn’t match the expectations of Samaras’s coalition, so more conservative employees were appointed (as per usual in Greece). ERT’s programming needed to be brought more to the right. But, at the beginning of June, with the Troika expecting good news by the end of the month, the lefty state broadcaster was deemed expendable. After all, the broadcaster would undoubtedly be critical of more austerity and the selling of state assets. Rummaging around for public sector employees to fire, ERT’s closure was surely not only expedient but convenient. Muzzling a critical ERT and, at the same time, cutting public sector employees to meet the Troika’s deadline was a winning combination.

The end of June wasn’t only a deadline for sacking public sector workers. 30 June was also slated for the auction of Greece’s digital frequencies, as part of Greece’s long-planned move towards digital broadcasting. ERT, now closed, wasn’t involved in the auction. It should have been. It had been understood that ERT would take at least two of the main digital TV frequencies but, with ERT closed, these frequencies went to Greece’s more partisan broadcasters. Presumably, NERIT, the new ERT, will now have to make deals with private media companies in order to gain access. No one could argue that ERT was apolitical, but it was certainly the least-biased news outlet in Greece if we compare it to the partisan private broadcasters. Greece’s digital future will now be lead by private interests.

ERT buildings are still occupied, and the online, legally-dubious broadcast is still running. Most journalists are exhausted, working overtime to keep ERT’s programmes alive. Why was it closed, and why now? It’s very hard to believe that ERT’s closure was solely aimed at getting rid of a big chunk of Greece’s public sector employees because the new state broadcaster will re-employ roughly the same number of people that have been fired. It makes rather more sense that Samaras, feeling the pressure from the Troika to meet a crucial deadline for firing public sector employees that would unlock further loans, saw an opportunity to please Greece’s creditors and muzzle a critical press at the same time. After all, ERT would only be critical of a coalition government led by New Democracy. So this is not about cutting the public sector wage bill. ERT’s closure was a ruse to fool those officials that lend Greece money, quickly turning into an opportunity to muzzle the press and, as a footnote, a coup for Greece’s private broadcasters.

What’s so sad about all of this is that the new broadcaster is likely to be more partisan than ERT was, as each ex-ERT employee will have to reapply, giving ample opportunity for selecting solely conservative-leaning journalists; and that Greece’s future digital broadcasting will now be run and defined by private rather than public interest. ERT’s closure is an injury for Greece’s public sphere and an insight into how Samaras intends to lead.