AGL 37.55 Increased By ▲ 0.05 (0.13%)
AIRLINK 218.49 Decreased By ▼ -4.40 (-1.97%)
BOP 10.68 Decreased By ▼ -0.14 (-1.29%)
CNERGY 7.32 Decreased By ▼ -0.24 (-3.17%)
DCL 9.10 Decreased By ▼ -0.32 (-3.4%)
DFML 40.35 Decreased By ▼ -0.61 (-1.49%)
DGKC 102.20 Decreased By ▼ -4.56 (-4.27%)
FCCL 34.40 Decreased By ▼ -2.67 (-7.2%)
FFL 19.50 Increased By ▲ 0.26 (1.35%)
HASCOL 12.82 Decreased By ▼ -0.36 (-2.73%)
HUBC 130.69 Decreased By ▼ -1.95 (-1.47%)
HUMNL 14.42 Decreased By ▼ -0.31 (-2.1%)
KEL 5.27 Decreased By ▼ -0.13 (-2.41%)
KOSM 7.20 Decreased By ▼ -0.28 (-3.74%)
MLCF 45.45 Decreased By ▼ -2.73 (-5.67%)
NBP 65.79 Decreased By ▼ -0.50 (-0.75%)
OGDC 220.12 Decreased By ▼ -3.14 (-1.41%)
PAEL 44.25 Increased By ▲ 0.75 (1.72%)
PIBTL 9.08 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.11%)
PPL 192.28 Decreased By ▼ -5.96 (-3.01%)
PRL 41.60 Decreased By ▼ -0.64 (-1.52%)
PTC 26.69 Decreased By ▼ -0.70 (-2.56%)
SEARL 107.29 Decreased By ▼ -2.79 (-2.53%)
TELE 10.32 Decreased By ▼ -0.20 (-1.9%)
TOMCL 35.86 Decreased By ▼ -0.76 (-2.08%)
TPLP 14.48 Decreased By ▼ -0.47 (-3.14%)
TREET 25.86 Decreased By ▼ -0.67 (-2.53%)
TRG 67.34 Decreased By ▼ -1.51 (-2.19%)
UNITY 33.50 Decreased By ▼ -0.69 (-2.02%)
WTL 1.75 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-2.23%)
BR100 12,291 Decreased By -72.5 (-0.59%)
BR30 37,354 Decreased By -863.8 (-2.26%)
KSE100 116,637 Decreased By -482.9 (-0.41%)
KSE30 36,770 Decreased By -166.8 (-0.45%)

An independent pro-Kurdish television channel in Turkey said Saturday the authorities had ordered it to be taken off air on accusations that it broadcast "terrorist propaganda" for militants. IMC TV said in a statement that Ankara prosecutors had sent a letter to Turkey's leading satellite operator Turksat ordering it to drop the channel and the request was immediately fulfilled.
It said that the grounds for the order was "making propaganda for a terror organisation". In Turkey, this usually means publishing or broadcasting information deemed supportive of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). But IMC TV, which was founded in 2011 and also focuses on women's, leftist and environmental issues, said it was not connected with "any party or organisation".
"We will of course use all legal means to defend ourselves against these baseless accusations," it added. Having lost its sole means of satellite broadcasting, the channel is meanwhile continuing to broadcast via its website. The channel's general manager, Eyup Burc, meanwhile denounced the order from the prosecutors to Turksat as illegal, saying it should have been made via the broadcasting watchdog RTUK.
Pro-Kurdish media have come under greater scrutiny from the authorities in the last months after a two-and-a-half year ceasefire with the PKK collapsed in July. But there is also growing alarm over the state of freedom of expression in Turkey with several journalists and other public figures facing legal action on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Reports said that the channel's broadcasts were cut Friday afternoon during a live interview with journalists from the Cumhuriyet daily Erdem Gul and Can Dundar who had been released from prison earlier that day. Gul and Dundar had been held in jail for three months in a case that has become a lightning rod for concerns about freedom of expression in Turkey. They still face trial in March.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2016

Comments

Comments are closed.