Turkey shutters independent radio over Armenian genocide reference
Station plays Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" at sign-off and resolves to return to airwaves.
Turkey finally shut down independent radio station Açık Radyo on Wednesday after a lengthy legal dispute with the channel.
The Istanbul station’s license had been revoked in July by the Turkish Radio and Television Council, a state media regulator, after a guest on one of its programs referred to the atrocities committed against the country’s Armenian minority during World War I as genocide, a term Turkey vehemently rejects.
Administrative hiccups prevented the station from being shut down before Wednesday. Although its last listenership data dates back to 2001, Açık Radyo has 187,000 followers on X.
“As millions of listeners can easily attest, Açık Radyo cannot be silenced thanks to the social impact it has created over the years,” the station wrote in a post on X, vowing to return to the airwaves.
“We invite all our listeners, professional organizations and the international community to raise their voices much more clearly and loudly this time against this decision, which has caused an irreparable loss in terms of press and broadcasting freedom in Turkey.”
The media regulator didn’t comment on the closure of the station, but İlhan Taşçı, a member of the main opposition party CHP, said it was “unacceptable” to close the station as it had “complied with all the rules” during its 30 years on the air.
According to Açık Radyo’s post, the community radio station has amplified civic voices in many areas including on climate and environmental issues, gender equality and multiculturalism.
The station’s slogan — “open to all the sounds, colors and vibrations of the universe” — was echoed in the last song it played on the air, the 1966 Beach Boys hit “Good Vibrations.”
Under the autocratic leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey has become a hostile environment for independent media, and several international organizations have called on European Union institutions to protect freedom of expression and the rights of journalists in the country.
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