New TV station 24h News in Kurdish coming soon!
- From: "Ali Asker" <pasa_asker@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 04 Apr 2006 23:43:38 GMT
INTERVIEW-Kurdish TV says into journalism not propoganda
04 Apr 2006 18:17:58 GMT
Source: Reuters
By James Kilner
COPENHAGEN, April 4 (Reuters) - A Denmark-based Kurdish television station
denied on Tuesday Turkish accusations it was stoking street violence in the
southeast of the country and said it sought only to give voice to people
Ankara refused to heed.
Roj TV head Manouchehr Tahsili Zonoozi said he planned to set up a 24-hour
Kurdish language news station -- a proposal likely to further anger Ankara
which deems the satellite broadcaster a tool of the rebel Kurdistan Workers
Party (PKK).
Sixteen people have died in a week of street violence triggered by the
funeral of 14 PKK fighters killed in a clash with Turkish troops. Prime
Minister Tayyip Erdogan says the unrest is engineered by those wishing to
split Turkey.
Zonoozi, sitting before a map showing borders of a projected independent
Kurdish state embracing parts of southeast Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria,
told Reuters he had no links to the PKK though its members had contacted the
station during phone-ins.
"We give voice to people they (the Turkish government) don't want to hear,"
he said in an interview at his office in the centre of the Danish capital.
"They say we are fully responsible for driving people on to the street, they
think of us as the enemy."
Turkey, seeking European Union entry, has lifted a ban on Kurdish language
broadcasting; but in practice tight limitations on television and radio
remain, presenting Roj with its market.
The area also suffers, partly because of the past violence, from high
unemployment and economic backwardness.
Turkish media, linking the station to separatist guerrilla violence that has
killed over 30,000 since 1984, have compared Roj TV to an al Qaeda channel.
The United States the European Union and Ankara regard the PKK as a
terrorist organisation.
KIDNAP
Zonoozi says his channel, a mix of news, culture and entertainment with a
Kurdish theme, provided objective uncensored journalism. Denmark had
effectively backed this, he said, in turning down Turkey's demands to shut
the broadcaster.
"We don't support either one side, but it's all happening to the Kurds," the
slim, grey-haired 47-year-old said.
Last year Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan boycotted a joint press
conference with the Danish Prime Minister because a journalist from Roj TV
was present.
An ornament of the Kurdish flag -- orange, white and green horizontal
stripes behind a golden sun -- stood above a fireplace in Zonoozi's office.
With an estimated 25 to 30 million people the Kurds are one of the world's
biggest ethnic groups without their own country.
Although the violence dwindled after the arrest of former leader Abdullah
Ocalan in 1999 -- Zonoozi described it as a kidnap -- it has increased again
in recent months.
"We do not interfere in politics but we are giving the chance to human
rights organisations and the people," Zonoozi, from the Iranian city of
Tabriz near the Turkish border, said.
He said it was only a matter of time before he added a 24-hour news channel
to his media outlets, which include a radio station and music TV channel.
Wealthy Kurds and advertising pay the 35 million euro bill.
He said the Danish government had already given him the licence and he just
has to find the extra cash.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L04106694.htm
.
- Prev by Date: AW: Emperyalist_oyununa_kanan_kürtler
- Next by Date: Iraqi Kurdistan: Mariwan Halabjaee, the New York Times, and New Allegations - A Constitutional Perspective
- Previous by thread: AW: Emperyalist_oyununa_kanan_kürtler
- Next by thread: Iraqi Kurdistan: Mariwan Halabjaee, the New York Times, and New Allegations - A Constitutional Perspective
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
|
