Roj TV

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Roj TV is an International Kurdish satellite television station broadcasting programmes in the Kurmanci, Sorani, and Hewremani dialects of the Kurdish language as well as Zazaki, Persian, Arabic, Syriac/Assyrian, and Turkish.

The channel broadcasts from Denmark as well as having some office and Studio facilities in Belgium and transmits on the Hotbird satellite (13 Degrees East) to Europe and the Middle East on 12.476 GHz Horizontal.

The Turkish Government claims the channel is a mouthpiece for the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) whom they regard as a terrorist organisation, as do the UK, U.S. and EU governments, and have lobbied the Danish government to revoke ROJ's broadcasting licence. So far this lobbying has proved unsuccessful. Previously, Turkey has successfully lobbied other European Governments including UK and France for the closure of allegedly PKK supported TV channels such as Med TV and Medya TV. The UK closed down MED TV, arguing the TV channel had supported terrorism and violence in Turkey. The British Commission imposed three fines totalling £90,000 on MED TV for three separate breaches of the requirement for due impartiality before the closure. ITC 1997 Annual Report Although the have been allegations of bias on the part of the ITC However supporters of ROJ claim that the channel provides an uncensored source of news and information (which is otherwise unavailable to those in Turkey without internet access) particularly on issues such as Democracy, Human Rights etc.

Kurdish broadcasting and publishing in Turkey has only recently been permitted under strict restrictions. State-owned TRT makes Kurdish broadcasts once per week, and some local TV and radio stations just started broadcasting 45 minutes per day of Kurdish programmes with Turkish sub-titles. However critics claim this programming isn't heavily censored.

Programming on ROJ-TV consists of news, political discussion programmes and cultural programming (particularly music and occasional films) with a small amount of children's, entertainment and educational programming. As well as programming in various Kurdish dialects ROJ broadcasts in Turkish (aimed at both Turks and assimilated Kurds) Persian and several other languages spoken in the region. Very occasionally films are broadcast with English subtitles.