Workers at a Spanish local government television station on Friday defied an order to close the broadcaster by airing their own live protest program. After more than 12 hours of resistance by workers, police were called in Friday to help close down Valencia’s loss-making regional television station RTVV. The Popular Party (PP) regional government sought a court order to evict the diehard broadcasters from the channel 9 studios, where they had been continuing their transmissions throughout the evening. At 12.19pm, the station’s signal went dead. The evictions by police were carried out peacefully, although some workers left the station shouting anti-government slogans and demanding that Valencia regional premier Alberto Fabra resign while others were in tears. The financial regulators appointed to liquidate the station’s assets, along with its equipment, ordered the station’s electricity cut. The last images broadcast from RTVV showed a group of cameramen pounding their chests in anguish themselves in front of a control panel to signify the end of the station’s 24-year run. Fabra announced on November 5 that his government would shut down RTVV after a court ordered the reinstatement of 1,000 employees laid off in a labor force readjustment plan (ERE). Workers at the Burjassot studios pledged to continue to fight to keep the station on the air. -E
Posted on: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 18:03:04 +0000
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