Crisis At RTÜK As AK Party Members Downplay Insult To Atatürk, CHP

The Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) has experienced a crisis over Justice and Development Party (AK Party) members of the board's refusal to punish a pro-government TV station for a program that apparently insulted the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the CHP and the Turkish Republic.

The pro-government TV station Kanal A aired a program on Sept. 22 titled, “Resmi Tarihten Gerçek Tarihe” (From Official History to Real History), during which one of the program's guests, Sait Alpsoy, made harsh remarks about the CHP and Atatürk.

Referring to the CHP, Alpsoy claimed that the party is godless, immoral and an enemy of religion.

RTÜK experts who prepared a report on the program said the TV channel should be fined for its insults towards the CHP and Atatürk.

During the board's meeting on Thursday, the AK Party members of the RTÜK said there was no need to enforce a fine or halt the broadcasting of Kanal A, as it would be sufficient to give a warning. However, the CHP members of the board said the statements made in the program were very serious, hence requiring harsher punishment. No decision resulted from the meeting, as two board members were absent.

The AK Party members' refusal to rule for a harsh punishment on Kanal A drew the ire of CHP members Ali Öztunç and Süleyman Demirkan, who at a news conference later in the day accused the RTÜK of protecting pro-government TV channels.

Recalling a similar case concerning the left-leaning Ulusal Kanal, where President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was referred to as “long-handed,” meaning "thieving," in one of its programs, Öztunç said the CHP members of the board had voted in favor of the punishment of Ulusal Kanal, adding that he could not understand why more serious remarks targeting the CHP and Atatürk were going unpunished.

Esat Çıplak, a RTÜK member from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), also made a statement on the issue, saying the CHP had been directly attacked in the Kanal A program. He noted that the statements made about the CHP had gone beyond the limits of criticism and should be punished accordingly.

He said the RTÜK's failure to enforce the necessary punishment on the channel was an example of it failing to fulfill its responsibilities.

The RTÜK gave a press statement later on Thursday in which it denied that the board had allowed insults to be made against the CHP and Atatürk. The statement that said although ruling party members agreed that Kanal A had violated some broadcasting principles, a decision to punish the channel could not be made in the meeting due to the absence of two board members, adding that the issue would be taken up again at the board's next meeting.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)