"2023 will be tougher for independent broadcasters"

An opposition member of the Turkish media regulator Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) said on Sunday that "2023 will be tougher than 2022" for independent broadcasters.

Noting that independent Halk TV, TELE 1, KRT TV, Fox TV and Flash TV were fined on 54 occasions a total of 17.3 million TL (approximately $1,000,000) in 2022, and a show in Halk TV was recently subjected to a broadcast ban, RTUK member Ilhan Tasci said:

"These are all TV channels that question and criticize the practices of the government. They are disliked by the government."

He added that while some government media like TGRT, Beyaz TV and ATV were fined merely 1.6 million TL (less than $100,000) throughout the year, others like A Haber, Ulke TV, Kanal 7, TV Net ve TV 24 were not fined at all.

Tasci said that RTUK has not decided even once in favor of a broadcaster in any of the cases it reviewed in 2022.

"This shows that the reports are reviewed by council members with a bias to issue punishments," he said.

He continued:

"We can assume that 2023 will be tougher than 2022 for broadcasters, because Ebubekir Sahin [the head of RTUK] will be even more daring, in line with the instructions of the authorities. He will try to please the authorities."