Police Raid on Radio Karacadağ on Claims of ‘Defaming President’

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Three persons have been taken into custody in the police raid on Urfa Radio Karacadağ. The radio could go on air again only upon release of their employees.

Providing information for bianet, Radyo Karacadağ has also pointed out that as of morning hours yesterday, 3-month archives of the radio have been seized.

It has been reported that the raid has been conducted over a user sharing the message on Twitter following the weekly broadcast on HDP (Peoples Democratic Party), that the radio had been broadcasting uninterruptedly the speech of a HDP MP and the whole speech consisted of defamation and hatred against the Presidential Palace.

According to the report of Dicle News Agency, the raid has been carried out on claims of “defaming the President”, “propagandizing for the terrorist organization”, and “praising the crime and the criminal”.

Three employees taken into custody

Police seizing the hard discs of the computers in which the music archive of the radio was on, have taken the employees of the radio; Müslüm Polat, Mizgin Çay and Zozan Kolay into custody.

Archive seized

Polat, Çay and Kolay have been released after giving testimony. Talking to bianet, Zozan Kolay has noted that they had been asked what kind of work they did at the radio and whether they were members of any illegal organization.

The radio has gone on air again this morning (May 25) and is experiencing difficulties with regards to the music archives as this had been seized by police.

About Radio Karacadağ

The radio which, as expressed by Mehmet Can Toprak, was the “first legal radio of the Kurds in Turkey”  had started test broadcasting in March 1994. The radio in which all the employees were students, broadcasted in 22 languages including Turkish, Kurdish and its dialects, Arabic, Chechen, Circassian, Laz language, Romaic, Abkhazian, Hungarian, Armenian, Hebrew, Azeri and English. (EA/DG)