Nikos Michalitsis was removed from his post; as a technical director of ERT, he was the one who decided to establish digital radio and digital high-definition (HD) in Greece, something that clashed with private interests. The decision was taken by the new CEO of ERT Gkikas Manalis, who reportedly takes orders from the government.
Nikos Michalitsis served as technical director for the period 2009 -2011, when he pioneered incorporating five digital radio programs and one HD channel into the digital DVB-T platform of ERT, resisting the strong opposition of private channels represented by Digea. Today, after its dismissal, the government plans to remove one digital channel from ERT, which will result in the closure of these additional services.
During his duty as a technical director, he had clashed with the then spokesperson of the conservative ND party Simos Kedikoglou in order to defend the interests of ERT. It seems that the latter, having now the position of the Deputy Minister on Media, decided the former's final dismissal, right after he acquired full control of ERT through the new CEO.
"I defended ERT, I owed it to my child '
During the summer of 2012, he was accused by SKAI channel of being responsible for an alleged scandal concerning the distribution of the satellite program of ERT, which was denied by evidence. A few months later, with this being used as an excuse, he was relegated to head of technical development and supervision. At that time, Nikos Michalitsis defended the position of ERT with the following justification:
"I have served a public agency for 29 years, being funded by the Greek citizens and I have the duty to not bear unfounded allegations affecting its validity and reliability. For reasons of conscience I refused to obey any "advice" I received, that I should stay away from this case because "big interests are involved". I resisted any such "advice" or even threat, when I pioneered the free transmission of High Definition signal by the public television and I was finally vindicated by my natural employer, the citizens of this country."
"Some people having a strong foothold in the media sector, appearing on TV with a frequency inversely proportional to the number and quality of their arguments, rely on threatening through prosecutors, thinking that this would frighten us who insist on legality. I look forward to a society that would not be driven by fear and where prosecutors will manage to assign responsibility where it belongs and real scandals will not have the ending of the SIEMENS scandal. Finally, I owe it to my child, whom I want to keep being able to ask to stay in this country to struggle, and not migrate full of disappointment"
Sources: ifemerida, TVXS,
photo: ERT journalists
