IMC TV satellite broadcast blacked out

ISTANBUL

The satellite broadcast of IMC TV was blacked out on Feb. 24, following a public prosecutor’s demand that its frequency be cut for “making terror organization propaganda.”   

“There has been an interruption in the satellite broadcast of IMC TV. The reason has not been clarified yet,” the small leftist station said in a tweet.

IMC TV’s Internet stream is continuing to broadcast.

The Ankara Public Prosecutor’s Office demanded the cancelation of the channel’s frequency for allegedly making propaganda for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK).

The public prosecutor’s office sent a file to Turkey’s top satellite network, TÜRKSAT, on Feb. 24, saying it had launched an investigation following complaints.

It had demanded that Turkey’s media watchdog the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) examine various IMC TV broadcasts made between May 3 and Sept. 4, 2015. Upon examination, legal experts concluded that the channel made PKK/KCK propaganda, according to the prosecutor, which ultimately demanded a review of the station’s satellite frequency. 

Previously, seven TV channels, including a children’s station, belonging to companies known to be close to the Fethullah Gülen movement, were removed from TÜRKSAT and one of Turkey’s leading pay satellite network and TV operators, Digitürk.

Meanwhile, the Diyarbakır 1st Criminal Court of Peace ruled for a ban on 120 Twitter accounts, including those of daily newspaper Evrensel and the Dicle News Agency, on charges of “insulting national elements of the state and its institutions” and “inciting armed insurgency against the government.”