State TV, singer disagree on finale
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Hürriyet Daily News
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Nisan 15, 2009 00:00
ANKARA - State-run TRT and Kurdish star Rojin are at odds as to why she has left the recently launched Kurdish language channel TRT 6. Rojin says she quit because she was being treated like a criminal during her program while TRT says she didn’t turn up for work and the show was taken off air
In response to Kurdish star Rojin saying she quit because of editorial pressure, the state-run Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, or TRT, said her show was taken off the air after she failed to turn up without an explanation. In a statement she issued Monday explaining her resignation from TRT 6, singer Rojin said the pressure over the content and the guests on her program forced her to leave.
"They never allowed me to prepare my own content for my program," Rojin said. "Can you think of an anchorwoman who does not know the topic and the host of the day?"
TRT 6’s refusal to allow human rights activist and composer Şanar Yurdatapan to be a guest on Rojin’s program was the last straw.
"A few months ago, Rojin invited me for her show and I accepted. One day prior to the show, a person from the production company called me to say that there was a mistake and that other guests from Germany would participate in the show. They told me I would be invited later on," Yurdatapan told Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review yesterday.
In the latest incident, Yurdatapan prepared photographs and other materials for the show, and just as he was leaving for the studio, he received a phone call, this time from Rojin herself.
"She told me that I was removed from the program again. ’I suffer greatly. They interfere in everything,’ she said, crying out of her anger," Yurdatapan said. "’I will quit this program. I have had enough of this,’ she told me."
TRT blames Rojin
TRT denied Rojin’s complaints in a written statement. "Rojin was absent from the ’Rojiname’ program recording on April 8 without an excuse," TRT stated. "Since this act is against broadcasting principles, the program was removed from broadcast."
Rojin Ölker, a renowned Kurdish singer, was one of the stars of TRT 6, which launched at the beginning of the year. Rojin hosted the program "Rojiname." "I included book reviews, literature, poems and women’s problems on ’Rojiname.’ But the pressures got so intense, they were attempting to empty the content," Rojin said.
TRT argued that the range of hosts on "Rojiname" is proof that Rojin's allegations are false.
"The program is treated as a potential crime and the host as a potential criminal by TRT," she said. "My resignation has nothing to do with the payment or the threats against me, neither is it caprice. It is a decision I have made with my free will," she said.
Commentators heralded TRT 6 as a major but long overdue initiative on Turkey’s Kurdish question. "Of course this channel is one of the most important developments in the Kurdish question. It is reasonable not to expect everything at once, but I could not accept an unmeasured approach that would count me as nothing," Rojin said.
The Kurdish singer completed around 70 programs on TRT 6. "I got in, saw it and got out," Rojin said.
"They never allowed me to prepare my own content for my program," Rojin said. "Can you think of an anchorwoman who does not know the topic and the host of the day?"
TRT 6’s refusal to allow human rights activist and composer Şanar Yurdatapan to be a guest on Rojin’s program was the last straw.
"A few months ago, Rojin invited me for her show and I accepted. One day prior to the show, a person from the production company called me to say that there was a mistake and that other guests from Germany would participate in the show. They told me I would be invited later on," Yurdatapan told Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review yesterday.
In the latest incident, Yurdatapan prepared photographs and other materials for the show, and just as he was leaving for the studio, he received a phone call, this time from Rojin herself.
"She told me that I was removed from the program again. ’I suffer greatly. They interfere in everything,’ she said, crying out of her anger," Yurdatapan said. "’I will quit this program. I have had enough of this,’ she told me."
TRT blames Rojin
TRT denied Rojin’s complaints in a written statement. "Rojin was absent from the ’Rojiname’ program recording on April 8 without an excuse," TRT stated. "Since this act is against broadcasting principles, the program was removed from broadcast."
Rojin Ölker, a renowned Kurdish singer, was one of the stars of TRT 6, which launched at the beginning of the year. Rojin hosted the program "Rojiname." "I included book reviews, literature, poems and women’s problems on ’Rojiname.’ But the pressures got so intense, they were attempting to empty the content," Rojin said.
TRT argued that the range of hosts on "Rojiname" is proof that Rojin's allegations are false.
"The program is treated as a potential crime and the host as a potential criminal by TRT," she said. "My resignation has nothing to do with the payment or the threats against me, neither is it caprice. It is a decision I have made with my free will," she said.
Commentators heralded TRT 6 as a major but long overdue initiative on Turkey’s Kurdish question. "Of course this channel is one of the most important developments in the Kurdish question. It is reasonable not to expect everything at once, but I could not accept an unmeasured approach that would count me as nothing," Rojin said.
The Kurdish singer completed around 70 programs on TRT 6. "I got in, saw it and got out," Rojin said.