Trans-Atlantic official slams US for forcing Turkish broadcaster to register as foreign agent
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's media freedom representative said TRT's registration under a Nazi-era anti-propaganda law had a “restrictive & negative impact on media freedom.”
A key trans-Atlantic security forum is objecting to the US Department of Justice's decision to force Turkish public broadcaster TRT to register as a foreign agent.
In a tweet this morning from his official Twitter account, the representative on Freedom of the Media at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said the decision to apply the Nazi-era Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) to TRT's Washington office would have a “restrictive & negative impact on media freedom.”
“Concerned by the recent decision of #US authorities to force the Turkish public broadcaster @trt to register as a foreign agent in the US,” tweeted Harlem Desir, a former French secretary of state for European affairs. “#FARA registration has a restrictive & negative impact on media freedom and should not apply to media from another #OSCE participating State.”
Desir's office told Al-Monitor that “at this stage” he had nothing to add to his statement but “depending on the evolution of the situation, we might eventually communicate again.”
