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Anastasia Balezdrova 

The Greek government adopted a reorganization plan for the national broadcaster ERT today. According to it the first television channel ET1 will cease broadcast after the vote on the decision by parliament. 

According to sources, the plan provides that the state media personnel will be evaluated by a committee and 10 percent of employees will be switched to labor reserve. The number of employees with temporary contracts will be reduced by half. 

While the ministers discussed the fate of the state media about 300 journalists, technicians and administrative staff from ERT held a protest outside parliament against the plan to cut costs and personnel. 

Initially, the protest went peacefully. EPT employees gathered on the sidewalk in front of parliament and shouted slogans against the reforms and the government spokesman Ilias Mosialos. 

Asked by GRReporter on feel it feels to be participating in a protest reporters said that "the feeling on the opposite side is very strange”. One of the organizers of the protest, appointed on a temporary contract, said it is unacceptable that they should lose their jobs now, "a few months after we were approved by a commission, which decided that our work is crucial to the functions of ERT". 

Among journalists, there were also older colleagues who had a real insight into the coming changes. "We are aware that decisions are made and it is a matter of time to be implemented. But nevertheless we decided to show out discontent from it" said a journalist who has been working in EPT since 1984. According to regulations promulgated by the government first in the list will be employees who are about to retire. 

Trade union leader of workers in ERT Panagiotis Kalfagianis said that "we will not allow the closure of a profitable company", adding that "ERT will not become a victim of the government and the Troika." 

Quarrel between the protesters and police officers started when they wanted to persuade them to move down the sidewalk in order not to interfere with traffic at the entrance of the parliament. Some of the protesters refused, and later on all tried to block Vasilisis Sofias avenue. Officers tried to persuade ERT protesters to return to the sidewalk, but when they saw that they have no such intentions, they started pushing them back with their shields. 

Meanwhile, according to a report of the international organization Reporters Without Borders during the last three years, Greece has been going downhill on the list for freedom of speech. From 31st place in 2008, today the country is on the 70th, which it shares with Bulgaria. According to the organization that breakneck decline is mainly due to the clientelist system that dates back to the 80s of the 20th century. 

The report states that economic and financial crisis has brought to the fore weaknesses and practices of a truncated media market. The existence of media groups is threatened by funding and weakened by the fact that they are supported in a fake way. The Greek press is concentrated in the hands of big businessmen and ship owners and the waves of layoffs bring feelings of insecurity among journalists. 

Reporters Without Borders shows that on the background of total distrust and social violence in Greece, to be a journalist, photographer or operator can at times be a very dangerous job. In order to reflect events during clashes between police and protesters in Athens, media professionals must be equipped with gas masks and helmets, because thrown objects from all sides as stones, pieces of marble and Molotov bombs can easily become deadly weapons. During the heavy clashes on Syntagma Square in June, a photographer went deaf after a bomb thrown by a policeman exploded next to him. According to the photographer this was an attack and not an accident. Often, police see reporters as enemies, because they show pictures of their actions against the crowd. Beatings, threats and obscene expressions against women - photographers are a cruel reality. 

Working conditions in Greek stadiums also remind reminiscent of a battlefield. Corruption, match-fixing and illegal gambling hardly tolerate the presence of "foreign figures" that could represent the reality of the audience. Threats and "confiscation" of cameras there, is not rare.

Society is not sympathetic to the journalists as well. The fact that many journalists are susceptible to influence by political parties and openly support the strong ones of the day or tomorrow's leaders, puts their credibility at a very low level in the eyes of people. Pressure from employers, who want to pressure or to flatter those in power to win government contracts in order to satisfy their own interests, forces journalists to censor themselves. This was admitted by a news broadcast head in a big TV station and added that "I self-censor myself every day and this is the price I have to pay in order to be in the position I am. If I am saying this, imagine what happens on the lower floors.” Financial uncertainty and risk of losing their job for a "professional misconduct" are the main reasons that compel journalists to turn a blind eye to many things and support the leadership. On the other hand there are many cases of journalists who receive bribes in the form of monetary support from businessmen and even political parties in order to maintain their positions. It is abundantly clear that despite the remarks of this kind of corruption, their names are not disclosed until today. 

While some time ago Greece was rarely included in foreign news broadcasts, for the last two years it has almost monopolized the TV screen. International media have always been perceived positively, but after the first occurrence of critical articles in print, western foreign correspondents became "persona non grata" and are perceived as outsiders who seek to dishonor the name of the country and its inhabitants. 

The left without jobs media experts are heading towards opportunities offered by new technologies. They create their own websites – the so-called blogs, which in some cases are used as a means of pressure, defamation and even extortion. From news point of view, in most cases they transcribe the announcement by the National News Agency ANA news, without even mentioning the source. The lack of any legislation on electronic media provides the possibility for such actions. The crisis of mistrust in traditional media has led many Greeks to turn to the so-called "civic journalism", which in turn breeds complete anarchy in the electronic space. 

Meanwhile, according to journalists, police do not only tap their phones, but also monitors almost daily their e-mails and messages on social networks. The organization calls on the Greek authorities to discontinue the practice and to ensure unhindered access to all their sources of information, the police - to stop persecution of reporters who show their ID cards and the judiciary - to carefully consider complaint reports from media professionals of police violence.