Employees of Greek state broadcaster ERT turned to the Internet on Thursday (June 13) after its abrupt closure by the government.

ERT's closure has prompted a nationwide strike and brought thousands into the streets in protest.

On Thursday, journalists, presenters, and other employees of ERT TV and radio stations continued for a third day to thwart the government's switch-off and occupied the building, transmitting broadcasts through smaller analogue channels and livestreaming on a Greek website committed to the free access of information.

All the programmes produced in the employee-occupied public broadcaster are fed through one computer in the building that then sends them via satellite to the servers of www.ThePressProject.gr and disseminates them throughout the internet.

The website's founder, computer engineer Kostas Efimeros, said that as soon as he heard the announcement that the government was shutting down ERT's signal on Monday night he contacted the station's technicians to volunteer his services.

He said that the public broadcaster had now inadvertently become a true independent source of information.

Efimeros said that the way the government went about shutting down digital transmitters and phone lines showed they were unable to comprehend the power of the Internet and scoffed at a warning letter he received from the finance ministry.

Many Greeks regard ERT as a wasteful source of patronage jobs for political parties. But the abruptness with which the government pulled the plug - blacking out screens with newscasters cut off in mid-sentence - was a shock.

Opposition parties condemned the action and the abrupt manner it was carried out.

The decision has also infuriated the government's two coalition party partners, sparking an atmosphere of tension in a country that had seemed to be emerging from the political drama of its debt crisis.

Presented by Adam Justice