Turkey radio station closed after suspension over Armenian genocide remark
An independent radio station in Istanbul has shut down after Turkey’s regulator cancelled its terrestrial broadcasting licence after it failed to comply with a suspension order over comments made by a guest on the genocide of Armenians.
“With its 30th broadcasting anniversary only a month away, this news has been the latest blow to freedom of speech and media in Turkey,” Acik Radyo (Open Radio) said in a written statement on Wednesday.
The station was suspended in May and fined after a guest, speaking on April 24, referred to the massacre of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire in 1915 as genocide.
RTUK, Turkey’s radio and television watchdog, said at the time that the station had made no attempt to correct the guest’s remarks, which constituted incitement to hatred and hostility.
Turkey accepts that many Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during World War One, but contests the figures and denies that the killings were systematically orchestrated and constitute a genocide.
Commemorations are held around the world each April 24 for the killings, that many countries recognise as genocide.
In June, Acik Radyo said it failed to comply with RTUK’s suspension order due to an error in the National Electronic Notification System (UETS), a state body that sends notifications to individuals.
“When the problem was identified, a letter was sent to RTUK explaining the technical problem. However, they decided to revoke the licence in July without responding to our petition,” it said.
An administrative court ordered a stay of execution of RTUK’s decision in July and lifted it last month. The station’s broadcast license was cancelled on October 11. RTUK has not specifically said why.
“Revoking the licence, regardless of the reason, is definitely an attempt to silence the public voice,” Omer Madra, co-founder and the editor-in-chief of Acik Radyo, told reporters on Wednesday after the radio went off the air. [Reuters]
