Roj -TV and the anti-terror legislation

The USA and Turkey critisize the Dansih government for not having closed and immediately outlawed the Kurdish TV channel Roj-TV.

The USA and Turkey insist on the existence of links to the Kurrdish organization PKK. But the crux of this mess is that Turkey still does not allow Kurdish media in the Kurds' own language. Turkey still does not accept the Kurds' right to a general freedom of expression and of maintaining their own culture. This has nothing to do with the PKK. Nor does the Roj-TV presumeably have any such links.

The PKK figures on the list of terror organizations of the EU and the USA and now we see the North American and Turkish authorities making use of this circumstance to exert pressure on Denmark in order to have the TV channel closed. It is disgraceful that Danish politicians do not opt for a more offensive stand against such an obvious attempt to subdue the freedom of expression.

It is not the first time that we see Turkish authorities trying to silence the Kurdish opposition by way of references to links to the PKK. Turkey's yearlong intimidation and repression of the Kurdish minority is a well documented fact in among other sources the reports of Amnesty International.

In its attack on Roj-TV Turkey makes use of Danish terror laws and the terror list of the European Union in its confrontation with a critical opposition. That is the main problem concerning the terror legislation.


Hilde Hylland
Foreningen Oprør
05.12.2005