More TV trouble in Turkey
March 2, 2016
By Chris Forrester
The past few weeks have seen a number of Turkey-based TV stations taken off air for one or other infringements of local regulations. BBC Monitoring is reporting that Bengu Turk was taken down by Turksat on March 1st.
The decision, suggest local reports, comes amid mounting concerns over media freedoms in Turkey.
The channel’s editor in chief Murat Ide said the shutdown stemmed from “provisions of our contract with Turksat.” “We have nothing to say [against Turksat],” he said in a statement on Facebook. He added: “I hope that this break, which I believe will last for a short time, does not become something permanent. This is a medal of honour for us.”
Turksat has dropped several television stations run by individuals reported to be sympathetic to the Gulen movement, which is inspired by Turkish-Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen and is also known as the Hizmet movement. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused an alleged network of Gulen movement supporters within the police and judiciary of being behind a corruption investigation in December 2013 that implicated people in his inner circle.