The Lost Signal of Democracy (awarded at PriMed Festival, France) documents one of the most crucial occurrences of the economic crisis in Greece: the unheard-of shutdown of the national public broadcaster ERT in 2013 by the previous Greek government. It was an autocratic and undemocratic decision that reminded Greeks of the dark period of the dictatorship. Two years later, The Lost Signal of Democracy is timelier than ever.
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Within five hours, on the evening of June 11, 2013, the Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras turned off the switches of the national public broadcaster ERT, thus violently and suddenly leaving all Greeks with a black screen. It was an unprecedented event in the democratic world, which shocked Greek citizens and caused a fierce international outrage.
23 months later, the newly-elected government led by Alexis Tsipras decides to re-open ERT and to re-employ all of its staff by “putting an end to injustice”, as declared by government officials. The new ERT will start broadcasting on the 11th of May.
An appropriate occasion for us to return to The Lost Signal of Democracy by Yorgos Avgeropoulos, a documentary film that invites to take a closer look in the recent past, in order to be able to claim the present and the future of public broadcasting in Greece and in Europe.
The Lost Signal of Democracy painstakingly captures the sudden death of ERT, thoroughly examines the reasons that led to the rapid operation of the shutdown and questions one of the most symbolic events of the economic and social tragedy experienced today in Greece.
Received by critics in Europe with comments such as “A stunning plea for justice” and “Democracy in Greece has been stabbed to the heart”, The Lost Signal of Democracy was screened at several international film festivals and was awarded with the Mediterranean Reportage Award at the International Documentary Film Festival PriMed in Marseille. It was furthermore broadcasted by TV networks around the world and theatrically released in Greece.
The film triggered European citizens’ interest after its screening at the European Parliament and its broadcasts by numerous public broadcasters in Europe as it offered to international audiences a dreadful glimpse of an extreme neoliberalism that threatens public, independent and democratic information and expression. As filmmaker Yorgos Avgeropoulos has stated, “Despite the black screen, this remains the most visible case study that we have for the fact that democracy is the first victim of the crisis”.
