ISTANBUL: Istanbul-based Acik Radyo announced on Wednesday it was being shut down by the authorities, six months after a guest talked about the “Armenian genocide” on air.
But it has vowed to fight on and find a way to keep working.
Turkiye’s broadcasting watchdog RTUK had already suspended Istanbul-based Acik Radyo from broadcasting for five days in May for the program in question, which it said incited hatred.
The media regulator withdrew the station’s license in July but the radio had been broadcasting until now.
“Acik Radyo’s terrestrial broadcast will be cut off today at 1300 local time (1000 GMT). Stay tuned for developments,” the station said on X, formerly Twitter.
The sanctions came after a guest on a show in April called the 1915 killings of Armenians in the dying days of the Ottoman Empire “genocide.” It is a term many historians agree on but which Turkiye fiercely disputes.
Acik Radyo urged its listeners to raise “an even clearer and louder voice” against the shutdown.
“Our radio has become an amplifier for civilian voices in many fields from the struggle for climate and the environment to public health, and from gender equality to multiculturalism,” the station said Friday.
“Acik Radyo has not restricted itself to radio frequencies, and there can be no doubt that it will continue its duty as an independent medium,” it added.
“Our radio cannot and will not be silenced.”
Acik Radyo said it would pursue legal means against the measure.
The station, which has been broadcasting for three decades, describes itself as a station “open to all sounds, colors and vibrations of the universe.”
Turkiye is ranked in 158th place out of 180 countries in its index of press freedom this year.
Armenia says Ottoman forces massacred and deported more than 1.5 million Armenians during World War I between 1915 and 1917.
Around 30 countries have recognized the killings as genocide, a charge vehemently rejected by Turkiye.
Ankara admits nonetheless that up to 500,000 Armenians were killed in fighting, massacres or by starvation during mass deportations from eastern Anatolia.
Turkiye shuts down broadcaster after Armenia genocide row
https://arab.news/gwz22
Turkiye shuts down broadcaster after Armenia genocide row
- Sanctions come after a guest on a show in April called the 1915 killings of Armenians in the dying days of the Ottoman Empire ‘genocide’
Israel arrests 2 Turkish CNN journalists over live broadcast outside IDF HQ
- Police said reporter Emrah Cakmak and cameraman Halil Kahraman were detained on suspicion of filming a sensitive security facility
- Since the Gaza war began, restrictions have expanded significantly, including tighter limits on filming soldiers on duty and sensitive or strategic sites
LONDON: Israeli police have arrested two Turkish CNN journalists who were broadcasting live outside the Israel Defense Forces’ headquarters in Tel Aviv.
Police said the pair were detained on suspicion of filming a sensitive security facility, according to the Israel Police Spokesperson’s Unit.
Reporter Emrah Cakmak and cameraman Halil Kahraman, from the network’s Turkish-language channel, had been reporting near the IDF’s Kirya military headquarters on Tuesday after Iran launched another missile barrage at Tel Aviv and other parts of central Israel.
During the live broadcast, two men believed to be soldiers approached the crew and seized the reporter’s phone, according to initial reports and a video circulating online that could not be independently verified.
Police said officers were dispatched after receiving reports of two people carrying cameras and allegedly broadcasting in real time for a foreign outlet.
עיתונאים של CNN טורקיה נעצרו לאחר שצילמו את בסיס הקרייה@NoamIhmels pic.twitter.com/t8a5P9yXfw
— גלצ (@GLZRadio) March 3, 2026
Israel’s long-standing military censorship system, overseen by the IDF Military Censor, has long barred journalists and civilians from publishing material deemed harmful to national security.
Since the Gaza war began, restrictions have expanded significantly, including tighter limits on filming soldiers on duty and sensitive or strategic sites.
After a series of similar incidents involving foreign media — most of them Palestinian citizens of Israel working for Arab-language and international media, along with foreign journalists — during the 12-Day War, Israeli police halted live international broadcasts from missile impact sites, citing concerns that exact locations were being revealed.
The Government Press Office later imposed a blanket ban on live coverage from crash and impact areas.
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir subsequently ordered that all foreign journalists obtain prior written approval from the military censor before broadcasting — live or recorded — from combat zones or missile strike locations.
Police said that when officers asked the CNN Turk crew to identify themselves, they presented expired press cards and were taken in for questioning.
Burhanettin Duran, head of Turkiye’s Directorate of Communications, condemned the arrests as an attack on the press and said Ankara is working to secure the journalists’ release.
