SYRIZA spokesman suggests gov’t sought to stop NERIT airing Tsipras speech live
A day after the managing director of state broadcaster NERIT and his deputy resigned abruptly from their posts, the spokesman for leftist opposition SYRIZA Panos Skourletis spoke of a “crude intervention” amid reports of political pressure on the state broadcaster not to provide live coverage of a scheduled speech by SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras at the Thessaloniki International Fair on Saturday and a planned press conference on Sunday.
According to media reports, NERIT’s CEO Antonis Makrydimitris, and his deputy Rodolfos Moronis quit due to government pressure not to cover Tsipras’ appearances in Thessaloniki live.
Skourletis told Skai that he contacted Makrydimitris after hearing the reports and that the latter reassured him that there would be live coverage of Tsipras. But the tensions that followed led the NERIT CEO and his deputy to resign, a development that came just four months after the former replaced Giorgos Prokopakis at the helm of the organization.
The new wave of upheaval at NERIT, which started operating in May following the abrupt closure of ERT in June 2013, came just a day before the deadline for the submission of applications for the broadcaster’s managing board.
In a posting on his Twitter account, Moronis appeared to take a swipe at the political leadership that installed NERIT’s directors. “If you declare that you want to create something independent, objective and of good quality but you don’t mean it, don’t assign the job to someone who does,” he said.
