Reporters Without Borders 21.07.2008-Reporters Without Borders condemns the indefinite suspension of Hayat TV’s broadcasts since 16 July at the behest of the High Council for Turkish Broadcasting (RTUK) for allegedly providing film of the Kurdish New Year celebrations to Roj TV, a station based in Germany which the Turkish authorities regard as an outlet of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).In reality, the footage was provided by the Kurdish news agency DIHA.
“Hayat TV’s suspension without any warning is indicative of the pressure which the Turkish authorities put on certain news media,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The grounds given by the RTUK was Hayat TV’s alleged cooperation with Roj TV when in fact the Turkish New Year footage was obtained from elsewhere. Hayat TV’s suspension must be lifted at once.”
Insisting that he has never provided any footage to Roj TV, Hayat TV chief Aydin Cubukçu said he would do everything necessary to be able to resume broadcasting and would seek compensation from the RTUK and the state-owned TV satellite operator Türksat.

Cubukçu claimed that, at the behest of the RTUK, Türksat chief executive Özkan Dalbay wrote in a 16 July letter to Turkovizyon, a company contracts Türksat services for a number of Turkish TV stations: “To avoid our disconnecting all of the Turkovizyon platform’s broadcasts, we ask you to terminate Hayat TV’s broadcasts and to henceforth pay more attention to the content of the stations you host.”

Hayat TV had been broadcasting since 3 December 2007. Its content is targeted at Turkish workers.