Judges and Prosecutors Criticise Prime Minister

The Union of Judges and Prosecutors (YARSAV) has reacted to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s comments on the decision of the State Council’s 13th Chamber  to stop the ban on broadcasts relating to the PKK attack in Daglica/Hakkari on 21 October.

The government had decided on a broadcasting ban after the attack, but the State Council later overruled the decision.

"Extremely unfortunate" comments

At a meeting of province party leaders of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) on 2 November, Erdogan criticised the State Council’s decision in terms which YARSAV called “lacking in legal judgement, deliberate and extremely unfortunate.”

"Enough is enough"

The Kanaltürk TV channel had asked the State Council to revoke the broadcasting ban. Erdogan referred to “a known TV channel”, saying: “Our government wanted to ban broadcasts. It used the legal paths for that. And there are rights which the government has and which it wants to use…But then you see that a TV channel makes an appeal, a known one. In response, another institution decides in that direction. This makes us think, you cannot see anything like this in any other country in the world. Enough is enough.”

“Is it right that our televisions show our martyrs every day, and all operations in an agitated manner? Those who watch the country from those TV channels believe that there is war all over the country”, said Erdogan.

He added that he expected “sensitivity” from all channels:

“If all our institutions cannot show the same sensitivity, then whether we want to or not, we start to think differently. It comes down to opposing the government. The reason why I say this so clearly is because I am hurting. I am hurting for this country, for this nation.” (EÖ/AG)