“If the ruling party wants to make a contribution that promotes the freedoms then it should revise the article in the Constitution that regulates broadcasting in local languages.”

Ahmet Birsin, broadcasting coordinator for the “Gün Radio-TV”, thinks that forming a Kurdish TV channel in the Turkish Radio and Television (TRT), TRT 6, is an investment by the government for the coming elections.

According to the regulations of the Supreme Council of the Radio and Television (RTÜK), the TV channels can broadcast in local languages only four hours a day and they need to have subtitles in Turkish. Birsin told bianet that the TRT 6 is planning to broadcast in Kurdish 24 hours a day and there were no subtitles in the test broadcasting. He thinks that if they are not going to revise the law and thus the regulations, then this will mean no positive contribution for the private channels that broadcast in Kurdish.

Opening with a banned song

The new channel started its broadcasting with a song by Mehmedo that is sung by Rojin and this song has been banned by the state for some time now. When this song was aired by “Aktüel Radyo Televizyon” (ART) of Diyarbakır in the eastern Turkey, owner of the channel Nezahat Dağtekin was sentenced to five years in prison. The sentence was converted to a fine.

“There are many cases right now for broadcasting in Kurdish. Most of the cases are for using the Kurdish letters w, q and x. We were closed for one year just because we aired the song “Xalo” by Şivan Perwer. The song that is banned for us was aired at the opening day of this new Kurdish channel. There are no changes regarding the RTÜK regulations about this matter in the agenda of the Parliament.”

The coordinator of “Gün Radyo-TV” says that the people of the region reach them to express their reactions.

“The people do not find this new channel sincere. The people who called the live broadcasting expressed their reactions both to the government and Rojin.”

Birsin said they are working towards voicing the demands and the critiques coming from various organizations, among them the newspaper “Azadiye Welat”, the artists of the Dicle-Fırat Culture Association, the Kurdish Writers Association.

To view it

The TRT 6, which will start broadcasting on January 1, started test broadcasting yesterday (December 25).

According to the TRT authorities, the new channel will not be on the system of cable television, but will be dome through the satellite and land system.

The frequency information of the new channel is:

Frequency: 12685

Polarization: H (horizontal)

Sign proportion (sr-symbol rate): 30.000

FEC 5/6

Kurdish is on the TRT, but it is “an unknown language” in the Parliament

The Kurdish words used by the Democratic Society Party (DTP) deputies in the Parliament were recorded as words from “an unknown language”. Osman Özçelik, a DTP deputy, had considered this as an insult. (BÇ/TB)