News blackout
April 7, 2011
If you try to catch up on the news in Greece today, you'll be met with empty newsstands and prerecorded television and radio broadcasts.
Journalists across the country began the first of a four-day protest on Thursday, causing a nationwide news blackout.
No television or radio news bulletins will be broadcast, no news websites will be updated and no newspapers or magazines will be published until Tuesday.
A series of job cuts has hit news organizations in Greece following universal austerity measures. In response, the Athens journalists' union has demanded that journalists be rehired at several newspapers and TV stations and pay cuts be reversed.
Greece narrowly avoided bankruptcy last year following a 110-billion-euro ($157.2 billion) bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. The government has since introduced a series of salary and pension cuts, while increasing taxes and retirement ages, in a bid to reduce its budget deficit.
The measures have promoted a series of demonstrations and strikes from a multitude of job sectors, including doctors, lawyers and bakers.
The media in Greece has been hit particularly hard by the country's financial crisis and several newspapers have been shut down.
Author: Charlotte Chelsom-Pill (AP, dpa)
Editor: Martin Kuebler