The Greek government has shut down the public broadcaster ERT, calling it a "haven of waste". Viewers watching the news on the main TV channel saw the screens go to black late on Tuesday June 11 evening, BBC News reported.

All employees have been suspended pending a re-organisation. Thousands of people held a protest against the decision outside ERT headquarters. It is the latest move in rafts of spending cuts and tax rises aimed at leading the country out of recession.

"ERT is a case of an exceptional lack of transparency and incredible extravagance. This ends now," government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou said earlier.

While all 2,500 employees would be sacked, he added they would be paid compensation and would be able to apply for work when the corporation relaunches as a smaller, independent public broadcaster.

The head of ERT's foreign desk, Odin Linardatou, said the announcement had taken journalists by surprise.

"We are very shocked, we are angry," she told the BBC's Newshour programme. "What I cannot accept in a democracy is that Greece will not have a public broadcaster."

Riot police have been deployed in Athens as thousands of people have gathered outside ERT's headquarters to protest against the decision.