Olay TV: Efforts to launch new channel fail, 180 journalists left unemployed

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Efforts to establish a new TV channel after the closure of Olay TV have failed, a journalist said on Twitter.

Some 180 journalists and other employees became unemployed as the company will be closed down, said Barış Yarkadaş.

Olay TV, one of the first local broadcasters of the country, was relaunched on November 30 as a national news channel.

Twenty-six days later, its grant holder Cavit Çağlar decided to close down the channel reportedly because of the government's pressure.

The channel did not claim to be critical of the government but doing "impartial reporting without commentary."

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Hüseyin Köksal, a shareholder of Olay TV, was trying to start a new channel with the same personnel.

"Because the government created various obstacles for the Olay TV team to acquire a new channel, 180 press laborers have lost their jobs," Yarkadaş wrote. (HA/VK)