Germany

[DE] Kurdish Satellite TV Channel Banned

IRIS 2008-8:1/16

Alexander Scheuer

Institute of European Media Law (EMR), Saarbrücken/Brussels

On 13 June 2008, the Federal Minister for Home Affairs issued a ban on organisations active in Germany, as a result of which a German-based television production company was closed down. The measure was taken in order to prevent the transmission of Kurdish television channel Roj TV in Germany.

The broadcaster, licensed in Denmark, is said to be a mouthpiece of the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), which is banned in Germany, and was accused of propagating violence as a means of achieving independence. It had also encouraged viewers to become so-called guerrilla fighters in the armed conflict with Turkey.

Like the British and French authorities, which banned or refused to award licences to broadcasters linked to the PKK and its successor organisation in 1999 and 2004 respectively, the German authorities hope that the ban will prevent the channel from reaching viewers in Germany, particularly via cable networks.