Turkish Opposition TV Station Shuts After 26 Days

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A non-public Turkish TV station that aired pro-Kurdish opposition views has shut down lower than a month after launch, underscoring press freedom issues in a rustic typically chastised by rights teams.

Olay TV, owned by businessman and former minister Cavit Caglar, started broadcasting on November 30 however was pulled off the air on Friday.

Its workers introduced its closure dwell on air.

Caglar mentioned he pulled out of the enterprise as a result of the station’s editorial line veered too near the pro-Kurdish opposition, whereas the editor claimed he had bowed to authorities strain.

Government editor Suleyman Sarilar mentioned on air that the community had aimed to keep up equal distance from each section in Turkey’s polarised society.

“However we’ve seen that we are able to now not sustain with this sort of broadcasting … Cavit (Caglar) mentioned he was below intense strain from the federal government and that he can not transfer ahead,” he claimed.

The Olay TV broadcast stopped following Sarilar’s announcement.

Caglar mentioned in an announcement that Olay TV deserted impartiality and was near the road of the Peoples’ Democratic Get together (HDP) — accused by the federal government of hyperlinks to outlawed Kurdish militants.

“I’ve been lively in centre-right politics and served this nation. I used to be unsettled by the broadcasts of Olay TV’s editorial group,” he mentioned.

He mentioned he supplied to create extra stability because the channel moved “from neutral to pro-HDP broadcasting”, however his enterprise companion rejected his concepts.



Turkey is among the world's worst countries for jailing journalists, ranked 154 out of 180 countries ranked by media watchdog Reporters Without Borders


Turkey is among the many world’s worst international locations for jailing journalists, ranked 154 out of 180 international locations ranked by media watchdog Reporters With out Borders
 AFP / Ozan KOSE

“I knowledgeable him that I’d not have the ability to proceed below these circumstances and needed to go away the community,” he mentioned.

Dozens of HDP mayors and officers have been jailed up to now 12 months over the celebration’s suspected hyperlinks to the Kurdistan Employees’ Get together (PKK), listed as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies.

One of many channel’s journalists, Duygu Demirdag, shared a video on social media the place Olay TV staffers filling the newsroom had been seen applauding in its ultimate broadcast earlier than the display went clean.

“At the moment is December 25, 2020. A tv station the place 180 staffers and journalists work shut down,” she tweeted.

Turkey is among the many world’s worst international locations for jailing journalists, ranked 154 out of 180 international locations ranked by media watchdog Reporters With out Borders.

Most of Turkey’s mainstream media is owned by kinfolk or allies of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“A tv station’s shutdown on its twenty sixth day is in itself a blow dealt at freedom of the press and a brand new episode in stealing public’s entry to information,” Utku Cakirozer, the opposition CHP celebration lawmaker, instructed AFP.

“It is apparent that the channel’s boss made such a call below strain from the federal government.”

In 2016, authorities shut down IMC TV — which has a pro-Kurdish stance — in what was seen by activists as one other casualty of a rising crackdown towards the media within the wake of the failed coup try in that 12 months.

Disclaimer: This put up has been auto-published from an company feed with none modifications to the textual content and has not been reviewed by an editor

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