Radio Banned For 30 Days

The closure of Anadolu'nun Sesi (Anatolia's Voice) was to be enforced as of Tuesday is linked to its airing of a specific song by a famous leftwing folk singer and the radio's coverage of the Kurdish problem as well as security operations conducted in Turkish prisons

The RTUK orders were relayed to the station on October 12 after its legal battle of three years to stay open failed.

Noting this was not the first time they faced repression, radio executives said the station had given the right to Turkey's opposition figures to air their voices and had covered issues and incidents that the media monopolies chose to ignore.

One of the offences cited in the RTUK closure was an October 7, 2003 program on the radio where folk singer Ahmet Kaya's "I look on the world with Pride" was aired. Subject to the decision were offending lyrics in the song referring to a conflict and people shot and killed.

Another broadcast RTUK punished was the December 9 2003 "Objektive" program covering the Kurdish problem, referring openly to "the tyranny imposed on the Kurdish people" and encouraging greater rights and freedoms being given to the people as proposed by the Basic Rights and Freedoms Association as a solution to the conflict.

The final penalty was for a December 14, 2003 dated offence in the "Halkin Sesi" (People's Voice) program that covered the widely criticized "prison security operations" of the time where the-then Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk was criticized.

RTUK concluded at that time that each had contained elements which was inciting segregation of the society based on ethnic discrimination and encouragement of violence - provoking the people based on class, racial, language, sectarian and regional differences and thereby inciting hatred and enmity among the people.

An initial closure order was passed by RTUK in 2003 but postponed after three days when an appeal was made by the station to an Ankara administrative court. After the 3-day break Anadolu'nun Sesi went back o the air until the 12th Administrative Court of Ankara started the current closure process with a December 26, 2005 conclusive verdict in favor of RTUK's decision.

Radio license may be revoked

Anadolu'nun Sesi, to remain closed for a month under the RTUK order, now also faces the threat of having its broadcast license revoked if found "guilty" in an inquest looking into its coverage of the "Diyarbakir incidents" last March during the celebrations of Newroz.

The station has recently been asked to submit a defense for its coverage of the incidents based on commentaries and press reports.

RTUK provisions bring an initial closure of a station for a period of one month without any prior warning but also allow for that station to be closed down indefinitely or its broadcast license be revoked if a similar offence is committed. (EO/II/YE/EU)