Media workers go on 24-hour strike in Greece over health care fund

Greek media workers have started a 24-hour strike in protest at a possible government cut in health care funds as part of the austerity measures Athens is taking to secure a fresh bailout from its European lenders.

Greece was under a news blackout on Tuesday after the country’s biggest press union called a 24-hour strike to protest the feared closure of a special health care fund for media employees.

Until the strike ends no news programs were being broadcast on Tuesday and websites were not renewing their news content.

Newspapers won’t be published on Wednesday.

The Athens Journalists’ Union appealed to the government and media companies to help keep the health care funds afloat.

Greece’s financial crisis has hit news media hard, causing a sharp drop in advertising revenues and subscriptions.

The unemployment rate is also high among journalists.

Greece’s left-wing government has promised to speed up cost-cutting austerity measures in the next few months to be eligible to receive a fresh bailout from lenders.

Athens has been reliant on international bailouts since 2010 after its economy crashed, leading to violent nationwide protests and a government change.   

In order to receive the bailouts by international lenders, Athens must pave the way by imposing painful spending cuts, tax hikes and reforms in various public and private sectors.

Meanwhile, the top eurozone official said on Monday that Athens and its European creditors were on a good path and close to completion of the latest round of bailout talks.

Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said that “confidence has returned to Greece,” and that the recession-hit country is regaining credibility, with a “very strong” fiscal performance in 2016 and 2017.

“A clean exit, and full exit in August of next year — that's our common goal so that Greece is once again independent financially and sovereign in its decision-making,” Dijsselbloem said after meetings with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and top financial officials in Athens.

He renewed a European promise to provide additional relief for repayment of Greece’s staggering national debt that is nearly 180 percent of gross domestic product.

“At the beginning of next year, we will design a mechanism to make sure that more debt relief will come in place over time if needed and if the growth is disappointing,” Dijsselbloem added.

In a related development, the European Union (EU) said on Monday that it had ended its procedures meant to force Greece to reduce its deficit as the country gets its books back in order despite being mired in debt.

EU headquarters said Greece’s “deficit is now below 3 percent of GDP,” the ceiling for European government deficits.

Greece’s debt stood at 179 percent of GDP last year, but it recorded a budget surplus of at 0.7 percent of GDP in 2016, and while a small deficit is forecast this year, the EU said the Greek fiscal outlook is improving.

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