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Turkish media overseer says opposition doesn't get equal time

Two members of the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) complain about the government preventing access to all points of view in advance of March 30 local elections.
Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu greets his supporters during a demonstration in Ankara March 27, 2012. Thousands of Turkish opposition supporters demonstrated in the capital Ankara on Tuesday against a government attempt to railroad a new education bill through parliament which secular parties say is designed to promote Islamic schooling. The government wants to overturn a 1997 law imposed with the backing of the military which led to a sharp decrease in th

Here is how two members of the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) — the state body tasked to monitor broadcast media — detail the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) policies that prevent the public from having full access to all parties' points of view, just ahead of the March 30 local elections:

Suleyman Demirkan and Ali Oztunc, RTUK members from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), charged in a March 14 press briefing that the government is preventing opposition parties from having their fair share of broadcasts, and therefore violating their constitutional right to an equal opportunity to address the people.

Stressing that Turkish Radio and Television (TRT) is a public broadcasting service funded by taxpayers, Demirkan said, “TRT allocates 90% of its broadcast to the ruling AKP, while the opposition parties, the CHP and the MHP [Nationalist Action Party],​ get, separately, 5% and the BDP [pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party]​ receives only 2.2%. There is a huge gap here. This can in no way be explained by the norms of equal rights to all. … This kind of broadcasting in the election season shadows the legitimacy of the election results.”

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