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Denmark: Kurdish ROJ TV trial to open on
15 August
9.8.2011 |
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August 9, 2011
COPENHAGEN, Denmark, — The trial of Roj TV
will on 15 August in Denmark. The satellite channel
is accused of propaganda for the Kurdistan Workers
Party (PKK).
While Roj TV does not have any studios in Denmark it
was granted broadcasting license by the Danish
authorities. The current trial should established
whether the Kurdish television will stay open or
not. The Turkish government is putting a lot of
pressure on the Danish authorities as it wants the
channel to be closed.
Roj TV was born as Med TV on 30 March 1995. On 14
April of that year it broadcast the founding
congress of the Kurdish Parliament in exile. Over
the years in the four parts of the divided Kurdistan
(Iran, Turkey, Iraq and Syria) as well as all over
the world the satellite dishes grew like |
The trial against the Kurdish television channel
will open next Monday in Denmark. Photo: ANF |
mushrooms to receive the
precious signal which was coming from Europe to give
the Kurds everywhere images and voices of their
country.
Med TV was broadcasting from Belgium and soon
Turkish pressures convinced the local authorities to
act against the television. In September 1996 with a
massive police operation Med TV is raided, its staff
detained, archives seized.
In February 1997 the MGK (Turkish National Security
Council) asks once again for the closure of Med TV.
But is after the arrest of the Kurdish leader,
Abdullah Ocalan, that things turn for the worst for
the television. On 22 March 1999, a month after the
capture (as a result of an international plot) of
Ocalan in Kenya, the English ITC revokes the license
and Med TV cannot broadcast anymore. But the Kurds
don't accept this abuse and open a new television
channel, Medya TV, this time in France. It does not
go too well, but a new license is obtained by CTV
based in the Vatican. And after a short period it is
Denmark that give the new licence. The Kurdish
channel begins broadcasting once again, first with
the name Mesopotamia TV and then with the name Roj
TV.
Roj TV has a very various programming, from news, to
in depth investigation programs, from live music
programs to live debates. It broadcasts in Kurdish (Sorani,
Kurmanci and Zazaki) as well as in Turkish.
The last big operation was on 4 March this year.
Dozens of arrests were carried out once again by the
Belgian authorities acting on request from Turkey.
And indeed Turkish policemen took part in the raid
at Roj TV studios which were destroyed. The
television as a result of this clearly politically
motivated operation suffered a €1.2 million loss in
material damage.
Roj TV is always under attack. From the Turkish
state to begin with, but also from the United
States, which have often act on behalf of the
Turkish requests (and pressures) to an often
embarrassed and embarrassing silent Europe. The
requests are of course for the "immediate closure"
of Roj TV. In 2005 it was the Turkish premier Recep
Tayyip Erdogan who, at a press conference in Denmark
with his Danish counterpart,www.ekurd.netsuddenly
left the room when he saw among the crowd of
journalists two Roj TV reporters. "There is room
only for one of us: if they don't leave I will",
said an angry Erdogan. And it was him who had to
leave the room, after the polite but firm reply by
the Danish authorities, "For us freedom of the press
is a value to respect and to uphold. We will not
censor any journalist". In other words, sorry Prime
Minister, but it's you who should go. And Erdogan
did leave, but he has been holding a grudge against
the Danish government since.
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