Brussels, 18/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - Further to a preliminary appeal made by the ERT trade union, the Greek government has been compelled by the Greek State Council, the highest administrative authority in the land, to temporarily reopen the services of the Greek public broadcaster, ERT, until a new, restructured audiovisual body sees the light of day. The State Council also underlined in its ruling the key role played by ERT in providing information, education and entertainment to the Greek people and to the diaspora. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, who had carried out unilateral closure of the ERT signal on 11 June this year, had proposed, just minutes before the State Council judgment was published, to go back on his decision that has been strongly criticised in Greece and abroad. Samaras suggested that a committee composed of representatives from three coalition parties should be responsible for recruiting the number of journalists needed to allow the temporary resumption of programmes, until adoption of the new draft law restructuring public audiovisual services, presented by the government last Wednesday, the day after ERT closure. Foreign advisers, from the BBC in particular, as well as other European public audiovisual groups, are expected to help with the constitution of this new body so that it meets the standards of pluralism, independence and transparency needed to comply with European public broadcasting standards and not state media, which was the ERT's situation hitherto, a government source underlines. In a press release, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) welcomed the ruling by the Greek State Council. EBU President Jean-Paul Philippot, who was in Athens last week to demand the immediate reopening of the ERT signal, said: “This is a positive turn because it means public service media will return to Greece. (…) We offer our support to build a new, successful, independent and sustainable public broadcaster that will contribute to pluralism and diversity in Greek society”.
As a sign of solidarity with the journalists and employees of ERT, the Greek delegation of the S&D Group at the European Parliament held a joint press conference on Tuesday 18 June with PROSPER (Pan-Hellenic Federation of Personnel of Radio and Television Enterprises - POSPERT) which defends the interests of ERT employees and to which the International Press Association (IPA) and the Italian federation of journalists were invited. IPA President Ann Cahill and the former IPA president, Lorenzo Consoli, expressed their deep concern about the media situation in Greece. The IPA pointed out the provisions of the Amsterdam Protocol relating to the public broadcasting system in the European Union, stipulating that public broadcasters are at the basis of the expression of democracy in member states. Consoli also bemoaned the attitude taken by the European Commission that did not firmly denounce the closure of ERT but rather sought refuge behind the fact that the management of the public service depends on the member states and not on the Commission. (IL/transl.jl)