Pro-government TV outlets continue to avoid RTÜK fines

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The Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) mostly issued fines on TV outlets critical of the government this year, statistics have shown.

According to İlhan Taşcı, a RTÜK member from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), only three of the 41 fines issued between January 1 and September 15 targeted pro-government outlets.

The pro-opposition Halk TV received 14 fines, TELE1 received 11 fines, KRT received five fines, and Fox TV and Flash TV received four fines each. The outlets paid a total of 11.5 million lira of fines (1 US dollar = 18.30 Turkish lira).

"This is the picture that RTÜK Chair Ebubekir Şahin says, 'We don't discriminate between television channels'," Taşcı wrote on Twitter.

Journalism groups have long criticized the RTÜK for taking punitive measures against outlets critical of the government.

CLICK - RTÜK penalized only TV outlets critical of the government in 2021 

CLICK - TV outlets critical of government paid 25 times higher amount of fines than pro-government ones in 2020 

(HA/VK)