BBC News with Jerry Smit.
Turkish riot police have fired teargas to disperse crowds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators who gathered in Taksim Square in central Istanbul after a day of sporadic clashes.
Istanbul’s mayor said in a brief television announcement that police would continue their operations night and day. The BBC’s James Reynolds says the square has been cleared and Gazi Park has now become the focus of the protests.
I was standing next to several young men who were catapulting objects towards the police in the square. I saw several fires near square. I couldn’t detect any protesters there but the most important thing is that Gazi Park itself remains absolutely packed with protesters, they still control the area. There are more people there tonight than I’ve ever seen in the last 12 days.
The government in Greece has unexpectedly announced the suspension of state-run TV and radio stations with immediate effect to save money. A government spokesman said the level of waste at the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation ERT was a scandal. He said the organization’s 2,500 employees would be sacked. They’ll be able to apply for work when the corporation re-launches as a smaller independent public broadcaster. Odin Linardatou is one of the employees affected.
“It’s without logic you know, I mean the people would happily see any active that is new, is a restructure maybe but not close down. Of course we had huge cuts in our salaries and we would have accepted it also if some of us were fired but that they can not accept in a democracy, in Greece is that Greece we not have a public broadcaster.”