Thanks to the latest change in the law regarding the Turkish Radio and Television (TRT), the Kurdish channel will start on January 1.

After President Abdullah Gül had signed on June 25 the law regarding Kurdish broadcasting that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had announced in his Diyarbakır meeting, everyone was waiting for its implementation.

To private media 45 minutes, to TRT8 12 hours

The Kurdish broadcasting will start on TRT8 on January 1 and it will be 12 hours in the beginning. Later it will increase to 24 hours. In the regional and local media, broadcasting in mother tongues such as Kurdish is restricted to 45 minutes for the TV channels and 5 hours for the radio channels.

The TRT 8 broadcasting, which will also take on the job of “telling the just cause of the fight against terrorism”, will be using the “Hotbird Satellite” that the pro-Kurdish ROJ TV, alleged mouthpiece of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), is using. Therefore, the broadcasting will also be accessible to the Kurds in Syria, Iraq and Iran.

The private media is unable to educate, unable to address the children

The Kurdish broadcasting will consist of the movies, news, entertainment and games. The National Anthem will be sung both in the beginning and at the end of each day’s broadcasting.

The "Law About Making A Change Regarding the Law of Turkish Radio and Television and the Law of the Founding of Televisions and Their Broadcasting” does not allow the few local media institutions permitted to broadcast in Kurdish to do educational and children’s programs in Kurdish.

Another complaint made about these programs by Diyarbakır’s Gün TV is the requirement to include subtitles. However, it is not known if the TRT8 will have the same requirement. Moreover, the TRT has no regulation specific to this subject.

Sinan İlhan from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be heading the TRT8 and four people have already been employed for the Kurdish programs. (EÖ/TB)