Ankara aims concern over broadcast at Denmark

Saturday, February 24, 2007

FULYA ÖZERKANANKARA - Turkish Daily News

Turkey has launched a diplomatic move to express its concerns over a Danish television station's airing of propaganda for Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), further exacerbating existing tension over another Denmark-based TV station.
A 45-minute television program recently aired on Danish station TV-2 – first established as a state TV station in Denmark and later privatized – included an interview with Murat Karayılan, as well as snapshots from the daily lives of PKK members.
Turkish Foreign Ministry sources told the Turkish Daily News on Friday that Ankara cannot remain silent on such a sensitive issue and that it has already conveyed its uneasiness – over Denmark-based pro-Kurdish broadcasts – via the Turkish Embassy in Copenhagen at the level of the Danish authorities.
Denmark-based ROJ TV has been a source of tension between Turkey and Denmark for the last three years with Copenhagen remaining insistent on not withdrawing its broadcast license or pulling the plug on the station. The pro-Kurdish channel also began broadcasting in Sweden last May via a cable television network. Ankara is pressing for the closure of ROJ TV and has stressed that on several occasions to Danish authorities.
Denmark has launched an enquiry into whether ROJ TV has links to the PKK and refuses to take action until their investigation is complete.
But sources from Copenhagen told the TDN that they don't see any linkage between the matter of ROJ TV and the recently aired program, saying that Denmark has considered the two issues as different cases. The same sources also said there is freedom of expression in Denmark and that they will evaluate the issue after watching the program in question