Turkey’s TV watchdog fined four TV channels over their live coverage of the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul, citing that the broadcasts were “harming the physical, moral and mental development of children and young people.”
The Radio and Television Supreme Council fined private channels
including Halk TV, Ulusal TV, Cem TV and EM TV.
Halk TV has gained local popularity because of their 24-hour live
coverage of protests in Turkey, as most of the mainstream media
have been slammed for their lack of reporting on the protests in
the country.
As the unrest unfolded almost two weeks ago, mainstream Turkish
media did not cover the violent police clashes, but instead
broadcast nature and history documentaries, and cooking shows.
Many of the other local networks briefly mentioned the protests,
but failed to cover the violent clashes in which scores were
injured.
Angered protesters had to turn to the internet, especially
Twitter, to get the information out.
In response, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan condemned
social media’s role in the riots, singling out what he called the
“scourge” of Twitter.
“There is now a menace which is called Twitter,” Erdogan
said in the beginning of June.
Most recently two Canadian journalists were arrested by police on
Wednesday while covering the ongoing protests in Istanbul’s
Taksim Square. The two had been held all day and later released.
Turkey is known for its
suppression of journalists. In 2012 it was dubbed as the world’s
leading jailer of reporters by a New York—based Committee to
Protect Journalists (CPJ). The investigation revealed that 76
journalists were detained in Turkey as of August 1, 2012, 80
percent of which were imprisoned as a direct result of their
work.
In response to the Radio and
Television Supreme Council’s fines, Hackers from the Anonymous
collective hacked the website of the Turkish TV watchdog, calling
the operation “Tango Down RTÃœK” via the Twitter account of the
collective’s Turkish members.
Turkish protesters continue to mass while riot police use tear
gas and water cannons to break up gatherings.
On Thursday Erdogan issued a final warning to protesters
occupying Gezi Park.
“Our patience is at an end,” Erdogan said in a speech.
“I am making my warning for the last time.”
Protesters are demanding the government cancel plans to destroy
Gezi Park, just meters away from the city’s iconic Taksim
Square; for police chiefs in cities with a particularly high
rate of violence against protesters to be sacked; and for the
release of those that have been detained during the protests.
In the 13 days of anti-government anger, four protesters and
one policeman have lost their lives and the number of injured
stands above 5,000, prompting Turkey’s Human Rights Foundation
to open an investigation into excessive use of force by police.
This article originally appeared on: RT