ATHENS, Greece, June 12 (UPI) -- Greek's ERT defied its unexpected closure by the government by broadcasting on digital frequencies and the Internet Wednesday.
Backed by thousands of protesters outside its headquarters in northeast Athens, ERT journalists broadcast through the night and assailed the government for shuttering the broadcaster and firing 2,700 employees, Ekathimerini reported.
The government said it would reopen ERT (the Hellenic Broadcasting Corp.) under a different name and with fewer employees because it had become bloated.
Conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras faced demands from coalition partners PASOK and Democratic Left to void the decision, Britain's Guardian reported. Lawmakers have three months to ratify the executive order that can't be approved without backing from Samaras' minority coalition partners.
PASOK and Democratic Left said they had not consented, Ekathimerini said.
Kedikoglou said the new broadcaster would have an annual budget of 100 million euros ($132.8 million), instead of the 300 million euros ($398.4 million) ERT gets now through licensing fees.
SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras said he would meet with President Karolos Papoulias to ask him to cancel his executive order allowing the government to close ERT.
The Athens Journalists' Union called a 48-hour strike beginning Wednesday on television and radio stations and print journalists planned to strike Thursday for 24 hours.
There was a 6-hour stoppage on TV and radio Tuesday, Ekathimerini said.
The European Broadcasting Union, representing public broadcasters in Europe, expressed dismay at the decision to close ERT, The Guardian reported.
EBU officials wrote to Samaras, urging him to "use all his powers to immediately reverse this decision."
"While we recognize the need to make budgetary savings, national broadcasters are more important than ever at times of national difficulty," they said.
