Turksat punishes anti-government newspaper
February 14, 2014
By Chris Forrester
Free speech suffered another set-back in Turkey on February 13th when Turkey’s Turksat pulled TV commercials from the country’s best-selling newspaper, Zaman. TV ads for Turksat’s new satellite were also pulled from three other daily newspapers (Bugun, Taraf and Radikal) which are seen as being generally critical of the government.
Zaman had long-standing contracts with Turksat for promoting its satellite fleet. Turksat’s new satellite (4-A) is due for launch February 14th (at 9.09mn GMT) from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
BBC Monitoring is reporting that the ads for Turksat will now run in Yeni Akit, a pro-government newspaper.