Media blackout in Greece after journalists strike 

Greece's two largest trade unions called a 24-hour general strike on Wednesday in response to the government's decision to shut down the state broadcaster, which it described as a "haven of waste".

The closure of the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation, or ERT, which had operated for 70 years, prompted journalist unions to stage a 24-hour strike in solidarity, creating a nationwide news blackout, leaving private television and radio networks airing documentaries or soap opera reruns.

Thousands of protesters remained outside the company's headquarters north of Athens as some journalists continued a live internet broadcast. Designed to cut costs and secure funding from the heavily indebted country's international creditors, the closure left 2,656 journalists and staff without jobs. Some may be re-employed under a restructuring plan unveiled yesterday.

The government said closing ERT, a favoured place of political patronage for successive administrations, was long overdue. Its operation, said Simos Kedikoglou, the government spokesman and a former ERT anchor, "was scandalous, a haven of waste, of corruption".

Operating three television stations, one satellite channel, 17 radio stations, a website and magazine, ERT's running costs in recent years grew by three to seven times more than that of other private television stations, government officials argued.