Closure
At 17:45 EEST (UTC+3) on the 11th of June of 2013, the Greek spokesperson, Simos Kedikoglou, announced ERT would close by the end of the day. ERT shutdown caused the loss of jobs for 2,500 employees.[13]
ERT was dissolved by a Common Ministerial Decision that was enacted by virtue of Article 14B of Law 3429/2005 (regarding the dissolution, merger and restructuring of public companies) as amended by an urgent government Legislative Ordinace (FEK 139/11.06.2013, Issue A').[14] Despite running a budget surplus on income from a license fee outside the state budget, in a televised statement, Simos Kedikoglou, the minister responsible for media and the government's spokesperson, said that the ERT was a "haven of waste" that cost more and had fewer viewers than private stations.[15]
Later in the evening, some of ERT workers managed to continue the broadcasting via Ustream.[16] Police forced their way into at least one of the transmitting stations, and all ERT transmitters were closed down around Greece, as was eventually the worldwide ERT World feed. Using satellite offices and other spaces that had not been closed down, ERT journalists continued to broadcast to the Internet.[17] The nearest ERT Transmitters to Athens closed at approximately 23:17 local time. 20 seconds later, channel 902TV (the communist party channel) retransmits the ERT signal, although a few minutes later, the Greek government called Digea, the digital television service, to close the signal [902's] due to rebroadcasting the signal without permission, and so 902 was closed for a period of time. This action was deemed unacceptable by most Greek citizens due to the Greek Government shutting down ERT without consulting the National Council of Radio and Television, the official body of Radio and Television in Greece.
On the 12th of June at noon local time, the AS and IP range of ERT, the official domain names "ert.gr", "ert3.gr", and "voiceofgreece.gr" were cancelled in the Greek Internet registry, meaning that live broadcasts on the Internet (ERT LIVE) have stopped, as well as the publication of all news articles. Emails sent to the broadcasters are no longer delivered. Other Internet assets registered by ERT are at risk of being closed (because their owner and contact address are no longer valid), notably the official Facebook page and Twitter account. ERT LIVE is relayed by other sites, such as the University of Greece.[18][19]
The European Broadcasting Union was quick to criticise the closure, issuing a statement the same evening where they expressed "profound dismay on behalf of Europe's entire public service media" and urged the prime minister to reverse the decision.[20] The EBU made the ERT stream available on satellite to its members, declaring as well that "to be in the EBU, you must be a broadcaster, and so we will continue keeping ERT on the EBU council" as said by the director, Ingrid Delterne.
Alexis Tsipras, the leftwing opposition leader, who would later become Prime Minister, expressed dismay in regards of ERT's shutdown and described it as "illegal".[21]
