Turkish Broadcasting is prohibited in Greece

New licence law that was published in the official gazette brings serious limitations to radio stations broadcasting in Turkish. New law that was approved by Greek President Karolas Papoulias was published in the official gazette on 5th July affects local and Turkish radio stations.

New law brings conditions such as;

• Radio station must provide collateral of 60-100 thousand Euro, which is very difficult condition to be satisfied by the low budget minority radio stations in Western Thrace,

• Radio station must broadcast for 24 hours and employ 6 full time personnel,

• The most interesting component of the law is that Greek is the first and the dominant language. Accordingly, except music programms, speaking language will be Greek.

International institutions such as International Press Institute (IPI) and South East Europe Media Organization (SEEMO) sent a protest letter to Greek President Karolas Papoulias and Parliamentary Spokesman Anna Benaki-Psaroudathe. In the letter, it was underlined that new law meant prohibitions for minority radio stations and requested the officials to take the necessary steps to prevent the law come into force.

Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) censured Greek government and expressed that right of the minorities to broadcast in their mother languages should be respected.

Western Thrace Turkish Minority Members will be seriously affected by the impacts of the new law

Statement of Minority Deputy İlhan Ahmet caused grief among minority members. İlhan Ahmet stated that the law prepared by his Party should not cause concerns while some offers would be discussed at the Parliament and the condition of employing 6 full time personnel would be converted to part-time personnel. However, Ahmet did not touch upon the most critical condition of dominant broadcast lan-guage and he only stated that Turkish would not be prohibited.





Halit Habipoğlu,chairman of Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF), stated that the new law paved the way to ban Turkish broadcasting on the back of accepting Greek as the dominant language. Habipoğlu said that the new law was very dangerous and aimed to destroy the basic right of broadcasting in mother language and right to information.


Habipoğlu underlined that the new law should be abolished promptly, expressing ABTTF intention to initiate protest actions throughout Europe.

Meanwhile, Greek Government has not made any official statement yet. Radio employees are waiting in a highly concerned mood due to the new law. Greek Government is expected to make official statement in the coming weeks.