Greece / State TV shutdown – 2 500 jobs cut

Greece’s government faced an internal revolt and public outrage on Wednesday over the sudden closure of state broadcaster ERT, hours after the humiliation of seeing its bourse downgraded to emerging market status.

The twin setbacks, coupled with the derailing of a troubled privatisation programme, reversed a rise in investor confidence that had prompted Prime Minister Antonis Samaras to say the risk of a “Grexit” from the euro was dead and a “Greekovery” was under way.

Yields on Greece’s 10-year benchmark bond crept back above 10 percent after Athens failed to sell state gas firm DEPA on Monday, putting it at risk of missing bailout targets.

The stock market traded at two-month lows after Greece became the first developed nation ever to be lowered to emerging market status by equity index provider MSCI.

Samaras’s government declined comment on the market reclassification as it tried to fend off a growing backlash against ERT’s dramatic closure that prompted outrage from journalists, unions and leaders across the political spectrum.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor

via UPDATE 2-Greece back in crisis mode on state TV shutdown, downgrade | Reuters.

Greek state TV closure triggers strikes

Greece’s two largest labor unions have called a 24-hour general strike for Thursday to protest the government’s move to close state-run TV and radio as part of public spending cuts, a decision that has shocked the public and triggered a political crisis.

TV and radio signals from the Hellenic Broadcasting Corp., or ERT, went dead early Wednesday, hours after the government closed the broadcaster down and fired its 2,500 workers, citing the need to cut “incredible waste.”

But thousands of protesters remained outside the company’s headquarters north of Athens as ERT’s journalists defied the order and continued a live Internet broadcast.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor

via Greek state TV closure triggers strikes – Timesonline.com: Europe.