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Dear Friends,

This note is to alert you to a very serious situation facing a highly
innovative satellite television station called MED-TV, a station specially
set up to broadcast to Kurdish communities in Europe, the Middle East and
beyond.  The Kurdish population totals about 35 million.

As is now finally becoming common knowledge, the Kurds are a stateless
people whose country was simply taken away from them in the superpower carve
up of Europe, and its people are now living under oppression imposed by
governments in Turkish, Iraq and Iran who claim sovereignty over their
former territories.  There are also many Kurdish communities in other parts
of Europe, having emigrated or fled for economic and political reasons.

MED-TV beams across Europe, North Africa and the middle east.  Based in
London and legally registered as a television company (where it is licensed
and monitored by the ITC), its aim is to sustain and encourage the Kurdish
culture. It is funded by the international Kurdish business community and
the Kurdish Foundation Trust. It has been on air over a year, transmitting
about six hours of programming a day of news, children's programmes,
documentaries and feature films, in Kurdish, Turkish, Assyrian and Arabic
languages.

Despite claims by the Kurdish government, it is resolutely not a propaganda
machine for the PKK, an organisation struggling in Turkey to assert Kurdish
rights, (or for that matter any other organisation) - but it does not shirk
its responsibility as a news organisation to report on abuses of human
rights and other concerns for the Kurds in Turkey and elsewhere, presenting
an alternative to the 'official' news versions.  This is intrinsically
linked to its determination to support Kurdish culture.

The task facing it, and its value to the Kurds, is enormous.  For instance,
broadcasting in the Kurdish language in Turkey, amongst other countries, is
simply illegal.  Around election time, it is illegal to use their language
on radio or TV broadcasts.  Yet despite international recognition and
enormous support from its audience, MED-TV was forced to stop broadcasting
on the 2nd of July when France, Portugal and Poland refused to provide them
with up-link facilities to the Eutelsat satellite.  MED-TV is now
desperately seeking alternatives.

This refusal seems to be the direct result of pressure from the Turkish
government, which has actively opposed MED-TV since before it started, on
all European governments.  Indeed, it is quite possible that the UK
government will soon capitulate, even withdrawing their perfectly legal
broadcasting licence.

The issue here is not simply about MED-TV - although this is important
enough to merit support in itself. MED-TV is a beacon of light to many who
believe that the globalisation of media can be turned to progressive ends
through committed action and innovative use of the opportunities available.
Put another way, this form of censorship will not threaten the
multi-national corporations in their quest to expand around the world - the
Murdoch empire is in a position to bargain with the largest of governments
and has shown (as in China) a willingness to give up even the pretence of
independence for access to markets and profits.  Rather, such insidious
pressures and hidden deals behind closed doors will be used to close-out the
use of the airwaves and spectrum by smaller groups struggling to assert a
voice often against vested national and commercial interests.  Indeed,
MED-TV should be seen as a test case of the commitment of the national
governments, and also of the EU, to the rights of marginalised groups to get
their message out simply on the same commercial grounds as others.  No
special concessions are being demanded by MED-TV: only the right to enter
into legal contracts to broadcast, the same as all other stations, while
complying fully with national and international law.

On behalf of the MacBride Round Table, I appeal to all those committed to
democratic communication to protest to their local Turkish embassy and the
Turkish government directly, to appeal to their own relevant Government
departments, and, in Europe, to canvas Members of the European Parliament.


Sean O'Siochru
Vice-Chairperson, MacBride Round Table


For more information, and letters of support, contact:

MED-TV
The Linen Hall
162-168 Regent Street
London W1R 5AT
United Kingdom
tel: +44 171 4942523
fax: +44 171 494 2528

Also check the Website: http://www.med-tv.be/med/

For letters of protest:

Turkish Prime Minister:  Necmettin Erbakan
fax: +90 312 417 0476

Turkish Foreign Minister: Tansy Ciller
fax: +90 312 287 8811


Sean O Siochru          tel: +353 1 4730599 office
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