The government has pledged that a
leaner and more efficient public broadcaster will emerge in the next few weeks
to fill the information gap, especially for the 10 million Greek expats who
heavily relied on the services of ERT for the goings on back in the motherland.
My immediate reaction was that of
anger and bitterness against the Greek government and those representing it. It
was not only that I was bereft for losing the only Greek language TV station I
had available as an expat but also because 2,600 more unemployed are about to
join the doll queues in a country
flooded by 1.3 million who rely on government handouts to make a living.
But then, I became a bit more
open and receptive to the various opinions on the same subject that started
creeping in the Greek blogosphere which as I am writing these lines, is the
only information channel dealing with the issue in depth, since every other
Greek mass media has gone on strike – and in a classic irony, self- imposing an
information blackout on yet another Greek tragedy.
Those views are as diverse as the
interests and motives of those expressing them – of course, nothing new there.
But if I could add my view to all
those scattered across the full spectrum of the land’s digital landscape,
whether from the right, the left, the centre or the extremes, I would conclude
that:
1)
ERT has been a villain and victim at the same
time. It has been victimized for sucking the oxygen out of the Greek tax payer
for nearly half a century and it has also been praised for the mostly neutral
approach to its current affairs coverage and for giving a forum to the complete
political spectre, irrespective and away from party allegiances or vested
commercial interests.
2)
However, those who blame it, tend to forget that
its blemishes have been due to the relentless cronyism practices precipitated by
the interchanging socialist and conservative governments’ insatiable greed for corruption
and voracious appetite for votes.
3)
By the same token, those who applaud its
contribution to the news industry also prefer to ignore that the antics and archaic
– almost primitive – attitude and mindsets of the few Unionists who festered
inside ERT’s ailing body for 42 years helped create a monstrosity whose only
goal has been to reward a large number of mostly inept, incapable and
inefficient public servants who lived a life of luxury at the expense of the
vast majority of the Greek people.
Who is right? Who is wrong? Who is
accountable?
In a country where democracy,
meritocracy and egalitarianism have lost their true meanings, in the land of
the beautiful blue where the society’s dominant colour is grey, in the Greece
of 2013 which has been enslaved to international creditors for generations to
come, there can only be two answers for each of the above questions: “WHO ISN’T?”
and “WHO CARES?”
Signal is lost. Let’s at least
make sure hope isn’t…
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