ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The leader of Turkey’s largest opposition party on Tuesday slammed the country’s state media for the disproportionate screen time it allotted to the ruling party's candidates in comparison to his own, ahead of local elections next month.
Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Ozgur Ozel said that the Turkish Radio and Television Cooperation (TRT) has given virtually no screen time to his party’s candidates in view of the local elections, while the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) candidates were granted significantly more screen time.
“The parliament has instructed them [TRT] to act impartially in their broadcast. This is an indication of the AKP turning a public television into its own media outlet,” Ozel said at the weekly meeting of the CHP’s parliamentary bloc.
“If the headquarters burns down, they will probably report it. And they will probably report about me if I die,” he stressed.
Ankara’s state media comes under heavy criticism during election times, as the country’s opposition parties accuse the state institutions of violating the principle of impartiality the corporations were established upon.
According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), 90 percent of the Turkish national media are under the control of the government, which ensures an opulent air time for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Ozel noted that since the beginning of the year, the state broadcasting agency has allocated 2,952 minutes for Erdogan and only 43 for himself.
Turkey’s local elections are set to take place next month, as Erdogan’s AKP aims to reclaim the municipalities of the country’s largest provinces of Istanbul and Ankara from the CHP.
CHP’s goal in the local elections is to retain control of Istanbul and Ankara, which it won the mayoralty of in the 2019 elections, after nearly two decades of AKP dominance.
The opposition party has fielded mayors Ekrem Imamoglu and Mansur Yavas in Istanbul and Ankara respectively, while AKP picked Murat Kurum, the country’s former environmental ministry, in Istanbul, and ultranationalist figure and bitter Yavas rival Turgut Altinok in Ankara.
