The Deputy Minister of Public Radio and Television Pantelis Kapsis escalated the tension with the ERT employees who have occupied the public radio and television station’s facilities and blamed them for the delays.
When asked if EDT has a license to broadcast the Deputy Minister wondered if “the state can pirate itself” when the government and state own all frequencies. Mr. Kapsis conceded that ERT did not shut down in the best possible manner and that the interim EDT channel was being operated by “associates on a volunteer basis”, with “possibilities of making a better program”.
The Deputy Minister explained that the new public radio and television body will begin its broadcasts in October and that a special evaluation committee will handle staff recruitments.
The spokesperson for ERT journalists Mahi Nikolara denied the allegation that the ERT HQ was under occupation and wondered why the interim channel does not broadcast from there.
Shaky start for EDT, slammed by director
Despite rumors that the interim channel would begin broadcasting its program at 14:00, 23 days after the Council of State ordered the government to reinstate a public television and radio broadcasting service, EDT began broadcasting at 21:00. It’s program began with Greek black and white film “Mrs. Mayor” by Roviros Manthoulis, followed by a Greek documentary on surrealist poet Andreas Embirikos and another film.
Mr. Manthoulis, who had condemned the closure of ERT, criticized the choice of his film to inaugurate EDT: “In his youth, Mr. Kapsis would ask me for my films to open a video club. He finally decided to start with ‘Mrs. Mayor’ […] unfortunately I cannot interfere or stop this, I can only demand compensation for the defamation caused by the broadcast of my movie from a despicable channel”.
