People protesting the shut down of Greek TV – via Neurope
Lebanon’s public debt is still on the rise due to a slowing economy, unrest in the neighboring countries but more importantly due to the lack of structural reforms. Instead of giving the MPs a salary increase or even worse increasing their number, it’s time we cut down all unnecessary costs.
TeleLiban is one example of an unnecessary cost. In fact, people have stopped watching TL for years now (Unlike Greek TV) and it has become a joke. In my opinion, it should have been shut down a long time ago.
Greece is taking drastic measures to revive its economy and get back on its feet and the Greek people is the one suffering the most. The Lebanese people is already suffering economically and things won’t get any better if preemptive measures are not taken ASAP to cut down the debt.
Greek Government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou made the announcement on the afternoon of June 11 saying that the corporations television and radio stations were to go off air at the end of the day. Kedikoglou justified the move by saying that ERT is a “characteristic case of lack of transparency and waste”, that it has not been audited for eight years and that it costs Greek licence payers 300 million euros a year through their electricity bill. He added that ERT had 3-7 times higher costs than private channels and low ratings and said that a new, leaner organisation will be created but did not specify when this would happen. [Link]
The Shutdown of the ERT, though, was not a prime example of well thought decision.
The Greek government was pressured to fire 2000 employees from the public sector in order to fit the requirements imposed to them. They used the ERT TV as a quick an easy solution.
That’s why there is so much drama now on this decision.