The Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) has suspended 15 more programs of the Samanyolu Haber TV news channel, in addition to the suspension of 20 programs in mid-March, Samanyolu Broadcasting Group General Manager Hidayet Karaca said on Wednesday.
The RTÜK penalty came days after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowed to finish off the Hizmet movement inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen and its associates, including Samanyolu Haber TV.
RTÜK previously imposed a severe punishment on the Samanyolu Haber, suspending 20 programs on March 16. “RTÜK has given us the harshest penalty in its history,” the news director said at the time.
Erdoğan has portrayed the sweeping corruption scandal that broke on Dec. 17 and implicated his close associates and even members of his own family as a plot by the Hizmet movement to weaken his government ahead of critical local polls scheduled for March 30.
Gülen and his followers are at the center of Erdoğan's accusations, although the prime minister has so far failed to present any evidence that the Hizmet movement was behind the Dec. 17 corruption probe.
In a related development, RTÜK members Ali Öztunç and Süleyman Demirkan stated at a press conference that RTÜK's biased attitude towards TV stations prevents the Supreme Election Board (YSK) from reaching fair decisions on stations that may have violated the pre-election rules.
Pubished on Cihan, 27 March 2014, Thursday
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