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Until 2002 the Turkish laws prohibited the broadcasting of programmes in languages or dialects (in particular Kurdish) other than Turkish. In the reform programmes for the European Union accession process the demand for permission to broadcast in other languages and dialects had been taken into account. The third EU adjustment package was approved by the Turkish parliament on 3 August 2002. It allowed inter alia constitutional and legal arrangements for broadcasting and education in mother tongues. The provisions on broadcasting are included in the Law concerning the Establishment of Radio and...

In 1998 and 1999 the Istanbul radio station Özgür Radyo was given three warnings and its licence was twice suspended by Radyo Televizyon Üst Kurulu (Turkish broadcasting regulatory authority - RTÜK). The first suspension was for a period of 90 days, the second suspension period lasted 365 days. Some of Özgür Radyo ’s programmes had touched on various themes such as corruption, the methods used by the security forces to tackle terrorism and possible links between the State and the Mafia. The radio station was sanctioned by RTÜK because one programme was considered...

The biggest Turkish media-group Dogan purchased by auction the commercial broadcaster Star TV in September 2005. The transfer from the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund TMSF which directed Star TV for 21 months was realised in November 2005. Dogan paid USD 306.5 million to become owner of the channel. The former owner of Star TV was businessman Cem Uzan. Star TV had been transferred to the public authority TMSF. There are some concerns regarding this purchase since the Dogan group owns almost half of the Turkish media industry comprising newspapers, magazines, book publishing, distribution, bookstores,...

The European Court of Human Rights in a judgment of 13 September 2005 has come to the conclusion that the Turkish authorities did not violate freedom of expression by convicting a book publisher for publishing insults against “God, the Religion, the Prophet and the Holy Book”. The managing director of the Berfin publishing house in France was sentenced to two years' imprisonment, which was later commuted to a fine. The European Court in Strasbourg is of the opinion that this interference in the applicant's right to freedom of expression had been prescribed by law (art. 175...

In July 2005 the privatisation of the Turkish telecommunications operator Türk Telecom took place with the sale of a 55 percent share. Türk Telekom's privatisation has been an issue since the beginning of the 1990s. It is a very big telecom operator with 19 million subscribers. Four Turkish and non-Turkish consortiums had bid on the company. The winner was Oger Telecom (that is part of Saudi Arabia´s Oger group), and Telecom Italia with a limited share. The process of privatization was approved by the Competition Board and the Cabinet. The Turkish mainstream media celebrated this sale, stating...