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Roj TV is "Our Language, our Eyes, our Ears": Peace Mother
Havva Kıran |
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Roj TV is "Our Language, our Eyes, our
Ears": Peace Mother Havva Kıran
27.1.2012 |
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January
27, 2012
ISTANBUL, — On 18 January, Paris-based TV
satellite operator Eutelsat decided to stop carrying
the broadcasts of Copenhagen-based Kurdish TV
station Roj TV. Reason for the suspension of the
broadcast was the decree of a Danish court which
found Roj TV guilty of supporting the armed outlawed
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) announced on their
website, "We are shocked by this unilateral and
outrageous decision violating freedom of expression.
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, which has appealed against the fine it was
ordered to pay.
According to IFEX, Eutelsat announced 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.'"
As of 22 January, Roj TV can only be watched via the
internet.
"Our only source of current
affairs"
What role does Roj TV play in the life of its
Kurdish viewers?
Instructor Gülnaz Kaya describes Roj TV as a source
of news for herself and her family:
"(...) For the generation of the elderly who do not
know Turkish it is very important to be able to
watch television in a language they know. My
grandmother used to enjoy watching short programs
and listening to music the most. For my parents, Roj
TV is a news source of current affairs. For me it is
the same".
"Our language, our eyes,
our ears"
Peace Mother Havva Kıran would have Roj TV running
in the background all day long. "It is our language,
our eyes, ears, our everything. There is only one
channel that sees us and talks about our problems;
and now they closed it down. TRT Şeş does not say
anything about us,www.ekurd.net
so we do not even have it stored in our TV. Now I
learned from the children how to watch Roj via the
internet when the news starts".
Hüseyin Akyol, General Publications Director of the
Özgür Gündem newspaper, said that Roj TV was
reminding Kurds living all over the world to their
being Kurdish so that they started to write and
speak in Kurdish again.
Erkan Çapraz, editor-in-chief of Yüksekova News,
indicated that Roj TV was the only alternative to
the main stream media for Kurdish people living in
Turkey.
"For Kurdish people, there is only the Turkish media
and Roj TV that considers their own voice. We have
been watching it since our childhood because my
mother did not know a single word of Turkish. When
the Kurdish language was forbidden, people were not
able to listen to a Kurdish song or watch a movie.
That is why Roj TV became so important for them".
From Med TV to Roj TV
Med TV, the first Kurdish television channel,
started broadcasting in 1995 with a British licence.
It was closed down in 1999 because it was "not
conform to the principle of impartial broadcasting".
Thereupon, Medya TV was established with a French
licence. Again after five years, in 2004, the
channel discontinued broadcasting.
Roj TV has been broadcasting since March 2004 via
satellite from Denmark and was received in 68
European and Middle-East countries. Broadcasts are
in Kurdish, Turkish, Arabic and Syriac. The Roj TV
company also includes the MMC Kurdish music channel.
In August 2010, a trial was opened against Roj TV in
Denmark with the demand to either close the channel
down or publicize it.
On 10 January 2012, a Danish court rejected the
request to close down Roj TV and ruled for a
monetary fine of DKK 65,000 (€8,700) issued to Roj
TV and the Mesopotamia Broadcasting Company by
reason of a violation of the Danish anti-terror law.
The satellite channel was alleged of having
connections with the PKK.
Thereupon, Eutelsat suspended the broadcast.
Roj TV announced to pursue efforts to continue the
broadcast via a
different satellite provider.
On Thursday Roj
TV has signed an agreement to broadcast from another
satellite after the decision by Eutelsat to suspend
broadcasts by the Kurdish television, DIHA news
agency reported.
Intelsat 10-02 is the new satellite hosting Roj TV
which has already started broadcasting.
The new frequencies are:
11092H
Symbol rate 15551
PKK (Partiya Karkeren
Kurdistan)
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 Kurdiss, 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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