The General Secretary of the Press Council, Oktay Eksi, has evaluated the state of the freedom of communication of the previous month.

Based on information coming from national television stations, he announced that the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) stopped 39 programmes of 16 TV channels in September.

Pre-election misdemeanours 

Many of the RTÜK decisions were punishments for pre-election misdemeanours which the Supreme Election Council (YSK) had demanded.

So, for instance, the main news programme and another programme entitled "Editor's Desk" of the KanalTürk channel were not allowed to be broadcast for nine days, starting from 11 September.

Similarly, the Kanal 24's news programme was stopped six times as a punishment for making pro-AKP (Justice and Development Party) broadcasts before the elections.

Laws criticised 

Eksi said that neither the YSK nor RTÜK were to blame for these anti-democratic measures, but rather that the existing laws forced them to act in this way.

ECHR punishes Turkey

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has previously punished Turkey in four cases brought by Erdal Tas, former editor of the Yeni Gündem newspaper. The newspaper publication had been stopped. Tas, who lives in Switzerland, has also been fined several times because it was argued that he had published announcements made by PKK members.

The ECHR decreed that Tas had not had a fair trial and that his freedom of expession had been violated. Turkey has been sentenced to paying 5,000 Euros, which includes 2,000 Euros damages. (NZ/AG)