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RSF: Eutelsat decision to suspend Roj TV
violates freedom of press
21.1.2012 |
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January
21, 2012
PARIS,— Reporters Without Borders is
stunned by Paris-based TV satellite operator
Eutelsat’s decision on Thursday to
stop
carrying the broadcasts of Copenhagen-based Kurdish
TV station Roj TV on the grounds that a Danish court
found it guilty of supporting the Kurdistan Workers
Party (PKK), an armed separatist group regarded by
Turkey as a "terrorist" organization.
“We are shocked by this unilateral and outrageous
decision violating freedom of expression,” Reporters
Without Borders said. “By suspending carriage of Roj
TV’s broadcasts, Eutelsat has done what the Danish
court refrained from doing. The Danish did not order
the closure of Roj TV,www.ekurd.net
which has appealed against the fine it was ordered
to pay.
“From China to Iran and Saudi Arabia, Eutelset has
already shown its lack of regard for freedom of
information. Now it is helping to promote an
‘anti-terrorist’ rhetoric with broader political
implications. This is a favourite argument that
repressive regimes use to justify their media
freedom violations. It is also the pretext Turkey
used to jail 30 journalists a month ago. Is the
French government, a shareholder in Eutelsat, ready
to take responsibility for this decision?”
Eutelsat announced on Thursday that, because of the
Danish court ruling, it had asked its distributors
to stop uplinking Roj TV to its satellites “in order
to avoid incurring criminal liability as an
accomplice to terrorist activities.”
Ruling on 10 January that Roj TV “supported the
activities of a terrorist organization” from
February 2008 to September 2010, a Copenhagen court
ordered the two companies that own it to pay a large
fine. But the court did not accede to a request from
prosecutors to withdraw its broadcasting licence.
The station has appealed against the decision.
Roj TV has repeatedly been accused of links with the
PKK. The station’s broadcasts were received in 68
countries.
Since it was established in 1984, the Kurdistan
Workers' Party PKK has been
fighting the Turkish state, which still denies the
constitutional existence of Kurds, to establish a
Kurdish state in the south east of the country, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000
lives.
But now its aim is the creation an autonomous
Kurdish region
and more cultural rights for ethnic Kurds who
constitute the greatest minority in Turkey, numbering more than 20 million. A large Turkey's
Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK rebels.
PKK's demands included releasing PKK detainees,
lifting the ban on education in Kurdish, paving the
way for an autonomous democrat Kurdish system within
Turkey, reducing pressure on the detained PKK leader
Abdullah Öcalan, stopping military action against
the Kurdish party and recomposing the Turkish
constitution.
Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish population
as a distinct minority. It has allowed some cultural
rights such as limited broadcasts in the Kurdish
language and private Kurdish language courses with
the prodding of the European Union, but Kurdish
politicians say the measures fall short of their
expectations.
The PKK is considered as 'terrorist' organization by
Ankara, U.S., the PKK continues to be on the
blacklist list in EU despite court ruling which
overturned a decision
to place the Kurdish rebel group PKK and its
political wing on the European Union's terror list.
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author or news agency,
Reporters sans frontičres | rsf.org | ekurd.net | Agencies
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