Opposition fumes at use of TRT6 for politics
Güncelleme Tarihi:
by Göksel Bozkurt
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Şubat 21, 2009 00:00
ANKARA - An AKP rally scheduled for Saturday in Diyarbakır will be aired live by the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, or TRT, with simultaneous Kurdish translation on its Kurdish channel TRT6.
Opposition parties have called foul against the ruling government for bad politics, after it was announced that an upcoming rally would feature the first-ever prime minister speech to be broadcast live in Kurdish.
A Justice and Development Party, or AKP, rally scheduled for Saturday in Diyarbakır will be aired live by the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, or TRT, with a simultaneous Kurdish translation on its Kurdish channel 6. The move has drawn adverse reaction from opposition parties, which claim the government is merely playing up to voters before the local elections set for March.
"Using any language other than Turkish is banned at the time of political propaganda under the laws. The prime minister seems to have allowed Kurdish broadcasts for his own propaganda," said Oktay Vural of the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP.
He condemned "the government’s attempt to use TRT 6 broadcasting in Kurdish to make politics by scratching ethnic identities."
Hasip Kaplan, deputy of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, or DTP, said the TRT broadcast of the prime minister’s Diyarbakır rally amounted to discrimination.
"Why isn’t TRT 6 broadcasting the rallies of the DTP, the strongest party in the Southeast?" he said. "Is TRT 6 owned by the prime minister’s father? TRT 6 was founded with our taxes."
Kaplan said while the DTP was accused of speaking in Kurdish, TRT 6 was going to broadcast the prime minister’s address in Kurdish. "Isn’t that a contradiction? Aren’t we participating in the elections? Aren’t we citizens of this country? This is a dirty election campaign." Republican People’s Party, or CHP, deputy Muharrem İnce also criticized TRT 6 and said it was taking a wrong approach.
A member of the Supreme Board of Radio and Television, or RTÜK, said TRT was unfortunately losing its feature as a public institution by actively taking part on the one side of the political polarization in Turkey. Şaban Sevinç recalled TRT’s previous "unacceptable" broadcasts targeting the main opposition party, CHP, the military and the members of the Constitutional Court.
"As a follow-up to this one-sided broadcasting policy, TRT is now unfairly broadcasting election rallies of one political party, while it is not airing broadcasts of other parties’ rallies," he said, adding that the latest move was openly against the impartiality principle in elections set out by the Supreme Election Board, or YSK.
"As RTÜK, we cannot supervise TRT broadcasts but I believe for fairness in the elections, YSK must immediately interfere in TRT broadcasts," he said.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is expected to address locals in Diyarbakır at the rally. Erdoğan last traveled to Diyarbakır on Oct. 20, 2008, when he also visited nearby cities. That trip to southeastern Anatolia faced severe criticism from the Democratic Society Party, or DTP, and street protests took place where protesters and police exchanged stones for gas bombs. Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality is considered one of the bastions of the DTP and the AKP is seeking to conquer it in the upcoming local elections on March 29. Erdoğan is visiting Diyarbakır amid this climate with backing from the state Kurdish-language channel TRT6.
TRT’s live broadcast of a political rally, as well as translating it into Kurdish, is a first for state television and it is reported that their greatest worry is "a technical mishap." Sources from TRT pointed to the risks posed by simultaneous interpretation and said precautions were being taken to avoid any possible problems.
A Justice and Development Party, or AKP, rally scheduled for Saturday in Diyarbakır will be aired live by the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, or TRT, with a simultaneous Kurdish translation on its Kurdish channel 6. The move has drawn adverse reaction from opposition parties, which claim the government is merely playing up to voters before the local elections set for March.
"Using any language other than Turkish is banned at the time of political propaganda under the laws. The prime minister seems to have allowed Kurdish broadcasts for his own propaganda," said Oktay Vural of the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP.
He condemned "the government’s attempt to use TRT 6 broadcasting in Kurdish to make politics by scratching ethnic identities."
Hasip Kaplan, deputy of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, or DTP, said the TRT broadcast of the prime minister’s Diyarbakır rally amounted to discrimination.
"Why isn’t TRT 6 broadcasting the rallies of the DTP, the strongest party in the Southeast?" he said. "Is TRT 6 owned by the prime minister’s father? TRT 6 was founded with our taxes."
Kaplan said while the DTP was accused of speaking in Kurdish, TRT 6 was going to broadcast the prime minister’s address in Kurdish. "Isn’t that a contradiction? Aren’t we participating in the elections? Aren’t we citizens of this country? This is a dirty election campaign." Republican People’s Party, or CHP, deputy Muharrem İnce also criticized TRT 6 and said it was taking a wrong approach.
A member of the Supreme Board of Radio and Television, or RTÜK, said TRT was unfortunately losing its feature as a public institution by actively taking part on the one side of the political polarization in Turkey. Şaban Sevinç recalled TRT’s previous "unacceptable" broadcasts targeting the main opposition party, CHP, the military and the members of the Constitutional Court.
"As a follow-up to this one-sided broadcasting policy, TRT is now unfairly broadcasting election rallies of one political party, while it is not airing broadcasts of other parties’ rallies," he said, adding that the latest move was openly against the impartiality principle in elections set out by the Supreme Election Board, or YSK.
"As RTÜK, we cannot supervise TRT broadcasts but I believe for fairness in the elections, YSK must immediately interfere in TRT broadcasts," he said.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is expected to address locals in Diyarbakır at the rally. Erdoğan last traveled to Diyarbakır on Oct. 20, 2008, when he also visited nearby cities. That trip to southeastern Anatolia faced severe criticism from the Democratic Society Party, or DTP, and street protests took place where protesters and police exchanged stones for gas bombs. Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality is considered one of the bastions of the DTP and the AKP is seeking to conquer it in the upcoming local elections on March 29. Erdoğan is visiting Diyarbakır amid this climate with backing from the state Kurdish-language channel TRT6.
TRT’s live broadcast of a political rally, as well as translating it into Kurdish, is a first for state television and it is reported that their greatest worry is "a technical mishap." Sources from TRT pointed to the risks posed by simultaneous interpretation and said precautions were being taken to avoid any possible problems.