Andrea Allen Hickerson American expert on Communication lends her support to ROJ TV

Dear Friends,
The campaign to shut down Roj TV serves no one. The primary function of the station is to create a virtual Kurdish community - one that transcends traditional national borders. For nation states to intervene and close the station threatens not only the freedom of Kurds, but the freedom of any group who uses new media and does not reflect the aims of nation states. Since the late 1990s, Kurdish television has been enormously successful at creating a Kurdish community worldwide. Roj TV for its part has done much, it has educated Kurds about Kurdistan and created a public sphere for people to engage issues important to Kurdish people and friends of the Kurdish people. Any democratic nation looking to close Roj TV is turning its back on its own democratic principles, because by serving as a Kurdish public forum, Roj TV encourages public deliberation and civic participation - the same ideals Western nations seek to promote in the Middle East.

Andrea Allen Hickerson
Ph.D. StudentUniversity of Washington
Department of Communication
Seattle, Washington USA