Government Ban Violates Right to Access to Information

The Contemporary Journalists' Association (CGD) and the Journalists' Union of Turkey(TGS) have condemned the ban on radio and television broadcasts about the battles in the Daglica region of Hakkari (south-eastern Turkey) enforced by the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) on Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek's order. The justification for the ban was that "the people's morale would be negatively affected".

CGD: AKP wants to control media

Ahmet Abakay, chair of the CGD, called the step a "dictate which is not seen in democracies" and a "clear and primitive act of censorship". He pointed out that in the face of the terrorism which it had not been able to prevent, the government was using anti-democratic means: "The AKP government wants to see the media under its control."

Abakay demanded that RTÜK reject the government's demand immediately: "However, RTÜK is not independent enough to do that. Most of the members of RTÜK are, because of the way the laws work, elected by the AKP and supporters of the government."

He argued that if the anti-democratic measure was carried out in order to prevent "the morale of the people from being negatively affected and the people being driven to helplessness and despair in the face of terrorist acts", then the Prime Minister and other members of the government should also not be shown on screen.

TGS: Press freedom violated

The TGS board too in a public statement accused the government of "violating press freedom and the people's right to access to indormation." Defining the measure as "censorship", the union criticised the government that the government was covering up its inability to solve the problem of terrorism with this censorship.

It added that radio and television companies, who were under public criticism for "reporting on the martyrs between entertainment programmes", and that they were not left much choice after the RTÜK measure.

The TGS further called on broadcasting companies act responsibly by reporting on events in a manner which would not affect children's psychology, provoke anger or hatred, or praise violence. (EÖ/NZ)