ROJ TV is a huge source of Communication for the Kurdish people in the Kurdish Language

David Lammy member of parliament for Tottenham and British Minister for Culture in the Department of Culture, media and sport:

ROJ TV is a huge source of Communication for the Kurdish people in the Kurdish Language

On Saturday 20 January Federation of Kurdish Associations in England (Fed-Bir) organised a reception meal for introducing several candidates who are going to compete in council elections in May 2006. Charles Adje the Labour party head of Haringey Council and David Lammy The member of Parliament and British Minister for Culture in the Department of Culture, media and sport were among the guests.

David Lammy had the following to say concerning ROJ TV in this gathering :

" It remains fundamentally important that there is freedom of speech for all of us across Europe. I have fought hard, The Labour government in this country has fought hard to insure that Turkey is being able to get into those negotiations, in those discussions to join the European Union. With the population that I see here in my constituency in North London and Tottenham, there are many Kurdish people that have come here to find a life for themselves. I want to insure that they are experiencing, and their brothers and sisters back in Turkey are experiencing freedom of expression. So I was very concerned to hear of the implications for ROJ TV which is a huge source of communication for the Kurdish people, in the Kurdish language.

And I hope over the days ahead, that people will think very strongly and politicians will take the lead in insuring that we in Europe have freedom of expression. All our communities and certainly the Kurdish community can have their television stations, can speak in their own language, can communicate to one another, and there is no bar on that communication.

Democracy is about that freedom. It is something we have fought for, in the Labour Party in this country and in the western civilized world.

We have fought hard for it, and it would be tragic if there was a curtailment of that freedom of expression in any country that hopes to come into the European Union. And I will certainly as MP for this area be watching very closely and be making very rigorous representations to our foreign secretary, if I see that curtailed ."