MED TV

{{More citations needed|date=August 2007}}  {{Infobox television channel | name = MED TV | logo = Logo of MED TV.jpeg | logo_size = 250px | logo_caption = | logo_alt = | image = | launch_date = {{Start date and age|1995|5|15|df=y}} | closed_date = {{End date and age|1999|4|23|df=y}} | picture_format = 576i (4:3 SDTV) | network = | owner = | parent = | slogan = | motto = | country = | language = | area = Europe, Middle East | affiliates = | headquarters = London, United Kingdom | former_names = | replaced = | replaced_by = | sister_channels = | timeshift_service = | website =  | terr_serv_1 = | terr_chan_1 = | sat_serv_1 = | sat_chan_1 = | cable_serv_1 = | cable_chan_1 = | sat_radio_serv_1 = | sat_radio_chan_1 = | iptv_serv_1 = | iptv_chan_1 = | online_serv_1 = | online_chan_1 = | 3gmobile serv 1 = }}

'''MED TV''' was the first Kurdish satellite TV<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nickryan.net/articles/television.html|title='Terrorist TV' - The amazing story of Med-TV, Kurdish satellite television station|website=www.nickryan.net|access-date=2019-03-24}}</ref> with studios in London, England and Denderleeuw, Belgium. MED TV broadcast programs mainly in six languages, Kurdish (Sorani, Kurmanji, and Zaza dialects), English, Arabic, Assyrian and Turkish.

==Programs and audience== MED TV Programmes were a varied mix from children's programs, music, documentaries and news broadcasts.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Kurdistan Report - Med TV: Geschichte des ersten kurdischen Fernsehsenders|url=http://www.kurdistan-report.de/index.php/archiv/2021/86-kr-214-maerz-april/1079-med-tv-geschichte-des-ersten-kurdischen-fernsehsenders|access-date=2021-12-31|website=www.kurdistan-report.de}}</ref> A program in which Kurdish books written in the three scripts of Arabic, Kyrillic and Latin were discussed, was moderated by a journalist of Özgür Gündem.<ref name=":1" /> It broadcast to Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Its primary audience was in the Middle East where it was seen by many as a refreshing source of information outside of state censorship. It also has a large audience amongst the Kurdish population scattered throughout Europe.{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}} In Turkey, it was forbidden to watch Med TV, people were arrested for having been caught watching its programs. The police would search for satellite dishs in Diyarbakır, which they'd confiscate.<ref name=":1" /> Turkey saw MED TV as a part of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK),<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Soguk |first=Nevzat|author-link=Nevzat Soguk |date=2008 |title=Transversal Communication, Diaspora, and the Euro-Kurds |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20542756 |journal=Review of International Studies |volume=34 |pages=181 |doi=10.1017/S0260210508007857 |jstor=20542756 |s2cid=145187611 |issn=0260-2105}}</ref> which it classifies as a terrorist organization. Nonetheless, its shows were very popular amongst Kurds in Turkey.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Ryan|first=Nick|date=1999-02-21|title=Kurdistan is alive and well on TV|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/kurdistan-is-alive-and-well-on-tv-1072339.html|access-date=2019-03-24|website=The Independent|language=en}}</ref>

== Organization == At its establishment in 1995, thirteen media workers employed at the Television. Most were amateurs, only one had an education in the field. The company expanded its activities significantly until in 1997, the television counted with 250 employees.<ref name=":1" /> The TV had close ties with the newspaper Özgür Gündem, whose chief-editor Gurbetelli Ersöz was also MED TVs chief-editor for Turkish Kurdistan.<ref name=":1" />

==Bans== Turkey repeatedly urged providers of satellites to end the broadcast of MED TV. One of the reasons the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party (HADEP) was banned in 2003, was allowing people to watch MED TV in the party's offices.<ref>{{Cite web |date=14 December 2010 |title=CASE OF KILIÇGEDİK AND OTHERS v. TURKEY |url=https://www.eods.eu/elex/uploads/files/5bd82c9c5c950-KILICGEDIK_AND_OTHERS_v_TURKEY.pdf |website=European Court of Human Rights |page=3}}</ref> HADEP Med TV first broadcast with a license from Independent Television Commission (ITC) and from satellites of Polish Telecom, until the polish government gave in to Turkish demands to ban MED TV. Following the ban in Poland, Med TV rented satellites from USA based Intelsat to broadcast its programs.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/newmediainmuslim00dale|url-access=registration|quote=MED TV -wikipedia.|title=New Media in the Muslim World: The Emerging Public Sphere|last1=Eickelman|first1=Dale F.|last2=Anderson|first2=Jon W.|date=2003|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=9780253216052|pages=[https://archive.org/details/newmediainmuslim00dale/page/194 194]|language=en}}</ref> But Turkey kept on demanding the British Government to take MED TV off the air, and MED TV's license was revoked on April 23, 1999, as their broadcasts were judged as 'likely to encourage or incite crime or lead to disorder'. Its license was revoked just after the arrest of Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the PKK on request by Turkey.<ref>[https://www.humanite.fr/2004-02-23_Medias_-Les-Kurdes-prives-de-leur-tele Les Kurdes privés de leur télé], ''L'Humanité'', 2004-02-23. {{in lang|fr}}</ref>

Following the ban there were widespread allegations of bias on the part of the ITC as the then chairman Sir Robin Biggam had interests in BAE Systems which also had extensive interests in Turkey.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.markthomasinfo.com/nsarticles/default.asp?id=11 |title = Mark Thomas Info |access-date = 2008-08-08 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080313001204/http://www.markthomasinfo.com/nsarticles/default.asp?id=11 |archive-date = 2008-03-13}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url = https://www.theguardian.com/Columnists/Column/0,,294941,00.html |title = Little Biggam man | work= The Guardian |access-date = 2008-08-08}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url = https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/monitoring/326883.stm |work= BBC News |title = UK regulator revokes Kurdish Med TV's licence |access-date = 2008-08-08 | date=1999-04-23}}</ref> Balfour Beatty and the UK Government were also criticized over the ban.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dundeechamber.co.uk/aboutus/union.html|title=Sample Union Motion. The Role of the Trade Unions. Dundee Chamber of Ilisu Dam Campaign Foundation|website=www.dundeechamber.co.uk|access-date=2020-03-03}}</ref>

On April 26, 1999, a spokesman for MED-TV said that they were determined to resume broadcasting either in a different country or under a new name.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cogsci.ed.ac.uk/~siamakr/Kurdish/KURDICA/1999/MAY/MED-TV.html |title= Med-TV Kurdish Satellite TV is shut down|access-date=2007-08-14|last=Rezaei|first=Siamek}}</ref>

==Quotations== {{blockquote|It is not in the public interest to have any broadcaster use the UK as a platform for broadcasts which incite people to violence.|ITC Chairman Sir Robin Biggam.<ref name=medtv>{{cite web|url=http://www.heureka.clara.net/sunrise/med-tv.htm |title= MMed-TV - Kurdish Satellite Television|author=Keith Parkins 1997|date=November 1997|ref= rev 1k}}</ref>}}

{{blockquote|When I went to Diyarbakir and Mardin in December 1995 for the Turkish general election, I enquired particularly whether that TV station [Med-TV] was being received and what was the public response. I was told that the viewers were positively rapturous. Old people had wept for joy after such a long period of cultural starvation. For all, it was a new window on the world and, what is more, in their own language.|Lord Hylton|House of Lords debate on Human Rights in Turkey, 18 July 1997.<ref>{{citation|url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199798/ldhansrd/vo970718/text/70718-08.htm|title= Lords Hansard text|date=18 July 1997|ref= 170718-08}}</ref>}}

==After the ban== When Med TV lost its licence in the UK, MEDYA TV started transmissions via a satellite uplink from France in July 1999 and a production studio in Denderleeuw, Belgium.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The Kurdish Nationalist Movement: Opportunity, Mobilization and Identity|last1=Romano|first1=David|last2=Romano|first2=Thomas G. Strong Professor of Middle East Politics David|date=2006-03-02|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521850414|pages=157|language=en}}</ref> MEDYA TV's licence was revoked by the French authorities in February 2004,<ref name=":0" /> the French court believed that the station had ties with PKK;<ref name=crw154>[http://www.clandestineradio.com/crw/news.php?id=212&stn=684&news=345 Clandestine Radio Watch #154] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303202320/http://www.clandestineradio.com/crw/news.php?id=212&stn=684&news=345 |date=2016-03-03 }}, 2004-03-15.</ref> and CSA, the French licensing authority stated that MEDYA TV was a successor to MED-TV, and French Appeal Court confirmed CSA's decision.<ref name=crw153>[http://www.clandestineradio.com/crw/news.php?id=211&stn=684&news=318 Clandestine Radio Watch #153] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201022224330/http://www.clandestineradio.com/crw/news.php?id=211&stn=684&news=318 |date=2020-10-22 }}, 2004-02-29.</ref> The channel ran an announcement stating that "A new channel, Roj TV, will begin broadcasting on the first of the month".{{Citation needed|date=August 2008}}

Roj TV began transmissions from Denmark on March 1, 2004.<ref name=crw154/><ref name=crw153/>

==References== {{reflist|30em}}

== See also == *Kurds in Turkey *Human rights in Turkey

{{DEFAULTSORT:Med Tv}} Category:Kurdish-language television stations Category:Kurdish-language mass media Category:Television channels and stations established in 1995 Category:Television channels and stations disestablished in 1999 Category:Mass media in London Category:Defunct television channels