Roj TV

Roj TV is an international Kurdish satellite television station broadcasting programmes in the Kurmanci, Sorani, Zazaki, and Hewrami dialects of the Kurdish language as well as Persian, Arabic, Aramaic, Turkish and English. [http://www.roj.tv/ Roj TV] ]

Programing

The channel broadcasts from Denmark as well as having some office and Studio facilities in Belgium and transmits on the Hotbird satellite (13 Degrees East) to Europe and the Middle East on 12.476 GHz Horizontal. [ [http://www.lyngsat.com/hb8.html Lyngsat] ]

Programming on Roj TV consists of news, political discussion programs and cultural programming (particularly music and occasional films) with a small amount of children's, entertainment and educational programming. As well as programming in various Kurdish dialects Roj TV broadcasts in Turkish (aimed at both Turks and assimilated Kurds) Persian and several other languages spoken in the region. Very occasionally films are broadcast with English subtitles and a short (15 minute) weekly news bulletin in English (Sundays 12.45-13.00 UK time) has recently been added to the schedule (although transmission/timing for this has been somewhat irregular). Roj TV is accessible live through Internet, as well (http://tv-online-channels.com/online-tv/Iraq-tv-channels/ROJ-TV_1272.html).

MED TV

MED TV was a London-based international TV whose licence was revoked on 23 April 1999, by British regulators Independent Television Commission, as their broadcasts were judged as 'likely to encourage or incite crime or lead to disorder'. The ITC imposed three fines totaling £90,000 on MED TV for three separate breaches of the requirement for due impartiality before the closure. [cite web
url = http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/itc/itc_publications/annual_report/1997/programme_regulation.asp.html
title = ITC 1997 Annual Report
publisher = Independent Television Commission
language = English
accessdate = 2007-03-12] eventually revoking their broadcasting licence (amid accusations of bias on the ITC's part [http://www.markthomasinfo.com/nsarticles/default.asp?id=11] [http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,294941,00.html] [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/monitoring/326883.stm] ).

When Med TV lost its licence in the UK, MEDYA TV started transmissions from studios in Belgium via a satellite uplink from France on July 30, 1999. [ [http://www.cogsci.ed.ac.uk/~siamakr/Kurdish/KURDICA/1999/JUL/tv.html Medya TV starts broadcasting ] ] MEDYA TV's licence was revoked by the French authorities on February 13, 2004, [http://www.indexonline.org/en/indexindex/articles/2004/2/france-authorities-close-kurdish-tv.shtml Easily.co.uk - Search domain names, domain name registration, email & web hosting servers ] ] the French court believed that the station had ties with PKK; [ [http://www.clandestineradio.com/crw/news.php?id=212&stn=684&news=345 Clandestine Radio Watch #154, March 15, 2004 ] ] and CSA, the French licensing authority, stated that MEDYA TV was a successor to MED-TV, and French Appeal Court confirmed CSA's decision. [ [http://www.clandestineradio.com/crw/news.php?id=211&stn=684&news=318 Clandestine Radio Watch #153, February 29, 2004 ] ] cite web
url = http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0421/p01s01-woeu.html
title = Denmark, again? Now it's under fire for hosting Kurdish TV station.
publisher = Christian Science Monitor
accessdate = 2007-03-12] The channel ran an announcement stating that "A new channel, Roj TV, will begin broadcasting on the first of the month".Roj TV began transmissions from Denmark on March 1 2004. [ [http://www.clandestineradio.com/crw/news.php?id=211&stn=684&news=319 Clandestine Radio Watch #153, February 29, 2004 ] ] [ [http://www.clandestineradio.com/crw/news.php?id=212&stn=684&news=346 Clandestine Radio Watch #154, March 15, 2004 ] ]

Roj TV is banned from broadcasting in Germany by the German Interior Ministry in June 2008 because of the network's ties with PKK organization. Roj's production company based in Wuppertal was also dissolved. [ [http://www.dw-world.de/dw/function/0,,12215_cid_3437645,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf Deutsche Welle: Kurdish broadcaster banned in Germany, June 24, 2008] ]

Background

Kurdish language programmes were completely forbidden from the media in Turkey from 1983 until 2002 when restrictions were relaxed somewhat. However during this time Kurdish stations started broadcasting to Turkey via satellite from Europe (Initially there also were several Turkish language commercial satellite broadcasters established in a similar manner in response to the TRT monopoly. However with the deregulation of broadcasting within Turkey all of these have moved their operations to within Turkey itself, and many of them have now been licensed on terrestrial frequencies) In 2004, the national public broadcaster TRT became the first major broadcaster to broadcast a Kurdish-language programme. [cite web
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3789913.stm
title = Turkish TV allows Kurds airtime
publisher = BBC News
date = 9 June, 2004] Currently TRT broadcasts Kurdish programmes once per week, along with a handful of local TV and radio stations. These programmes are limited 45 minutes per day (an hour per week on TRT), are heavily censored, must include Turkish sub-titles and should not include children's programmes and any other types of educational programmes. The programmes are mostly focused on Ataturk and Turkish ancient history. cite web | title = (European) COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENTTurkey 2006 Progress Report | url = http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/key_documents/2006/Nov/tr_sec_1390_en.pdf | accessdate = 2007-11-07 | quote = (Page 22) "As regards cultural rights, permission was granted to two local TV channels in Diyarbakır and to one radio (station) in Şanlıurfa to broadcast in Kurdish. However, time restrictions apply, with the exception of films and music programmes. All broadcasts, except songs, must be subtitled or translated in Turkish, which makes live broadcasts technically cumbersome. Educational programmes teaching the Kurdish language are not allowed. The Turkish Public Television (TRT) has continued broadcasting in five languages including Kurdish. However, the duration and scope of TRT's national broadcasts in five languages is very limited. No private broadcaster at national level has applied for broadcasting in languages other than Turkish since the enactment of the 2004 legislation.]

ee also

*Kurdistan

References

External links

* [http://www.roj.tv/ Roj TV Homepage (some English content)]
* [http://www.silav.net/zindi/roj-tv.html Roj TV Live]