Protesters disrupt broadcast

Agence France-Presse

"The demonstrators vandalized our equipment and attacked our technical staff and therefore I didn't see any other option but to cancel the program," the program's director Sigmundur Ernir Runarsson said.

Around 300 demonstrators showed up outside Hotel Borg in downtown Reykjavik as the annual Kryddsild debate program was getting underway, according to media reports.

Protesters threw eggs, burned transmission cables and thrashed the air with emergency flares as they demanded a "New, proper government," a news Web site reported.

Party leaders, including Ingibjoerg Solrun Gisladottir, the foreign minister and head of coalition member the Social Democrats, had made it about half way through the two-hour program when the rest of the live broadcast was suddenly cancelled due to vandalism.

After about 200 demonstrators managed to force their way into the hotel, police wearing riot gear used tear gas to force them back out into the street.The protesters said in a statement they were expressing their "resentment of politicians and public officials" who had helped bring about "the chilling situation that now burns up our homes and takes away our job opportunities and future."