Parliamentary Inquiry to Investigate Impartiality of State Channel TRT

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Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Mardin MP Tuma Çelik has submitted a Parliamentary inquiry to the Speaker's Office of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) and requested a Parliamentary investigation into the state channel TRT's compliance with the principle of 'impartial' broadcasting and treatment of all political parties equally.

In his Parliamentary inquiry, Çelik has underlined that the TRT is the only public broadcasting organization of the country and emphasized that the channel is required to have an impartial public legal personality as per the Law no 2954 on Radio and Television and, therefore, needs to adopt impartial broadcasting as its main principle.

"TRT is doing partial broadcasting, especially by not treating all political parties equally", Tuma Çelik has further indicated in his inquiry.

53 hours for AKP-MHP, 14 hours for CHP-İYİ Party

Çelik has also cited a report by İsmet Demirdöğen, a member of the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK). In his report, Demirdöğen shared statistics on the TRT broadcasting in the pre-election period.

According to the report, while 53 hours were allocated to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) between February 1 and 28, 14 hours in total were allocated to the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and İYİ Party in this period. The report provided no information on the TRT broadcasting of the HDP.

TRT reported no news on the HDP

HDP MP Çelik has also referred to the news reported by the TRT News channel on political parties in February 2019. Underlining that no critical comments were made on the AKP and the MHP in the news programs and live broadcasts of TRT News in this period, Çelik has shared how many hours were allocated to the parties in February:

• In favor of the AKP: 49 hours, 58 minutes, 12 seconds; no news against the party
• In favor of the MHP: 3 hours, 32 minutes, 26 seconds; no news against the party
• In favor of the CHP: 5 hours, 47 minutes, 25 seconds; against the party: 5 hours, 56 minutes, 15 seconds
• In favor of the İYİ Party: 55 minutes, 32 seconds; against the party: 1 hour, 11 minutes, 53 seconds

Emphasizing that the channel did not report on any electoral campaigns or rallies by the HDP during this period, Çelik has stated that the TRT News mentioned the party in 87 minutes, 28 seconds of its news, "which only reported defaming news against the party".

Request for a Parliamentary investigation

Submitting a Parliamentary inquiry to the Speaker's Office, Tuma Çelik has stated that the state channel TRT has broken its own law and does partial broadcasting by taking up a positive position. Accordingly, requested a Parliamentary investigation into the TRT's compliance with the principle of 'impartial' broadcasting and treatment of all political parties equally. (HA/SD)