Turkey revokes licenses of 24 radio and television stations

Turkey’s broadcasting authority has revoked the licenses of 24 radio and television stations, accusing them of ties to the Gulenist movement.

The Supreme Council of Radio and Television (RTUK) cancelled licenses of 24 Gulen-linked broadcasters – including Samanyolu, Can Erzincan television and Dunya Radio – following the thwarted putsch last Friday.

Turkey’s government has said the attempted coup was organized by followers of U.S.-based Gulen, who is accused of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through supporters within Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary, forming the so-called ‘parallel state.’

This follows the blocking of about 20 online news portals in recent days. Among the banned daily websites and news portals are Rotahaber, Gazeteport, Karşı daily, ABC daily and Medyascope. Currently we don’t have information if banned websites are available or still blocked.

Ünal Tanık, editor-in-chief of Rotahaber news portal said on this Twitter account on Sunday that access to the website was blocked although there was not any technical problem.

Medyacope released a statement after censorship, saying, “Unfortunately TİB has blocked access to our website. We do not know the reason.”

ABC daily also condemned the censorship on social media and said, “This is a blow to the free media, we will not be silent.”

Access to the website of the Yeni Hayat daily (yenihayatgazetesi.com), one of the few remaining independent dailies in Turkey, had also been blocked due to its lead story around 8.30 p.m. on June 30, without any notification or justification. The story claimed there are currently 150 potential suicide bombers linked to the terrorist Islamic State and the Levant (ISIS) in Turkey.