The General Director of Eutelsat, which stopped Med Nûçe’s broadcast on AKP regime's demand, admitted that they made this decision because they provide satellite broadcast service for several networks in Turkey.
Eutelsat General Director Rodolphe Belmer spoke to the French Senate Commission of Economy and repeated that the decision to stop Med Nûçe’s broadcast was made on the request of RTÜK, the Radio and Television Supreme Council of Turkey. Belmer admitted that they had to cooperate with Turkish authorities because they have operations in Turkey and accepted that they made the decision to stop the broadcast only on the demand of RTÜK.
Rodolphe Belmer said, “RTÜK demanded we stop the broadcast of a Kurdish network that was breaking Turkish law, and we did that. This decision to stop the broadcast is valid until the decrees from the authorities in the other 3 European countries the network in question (Med Nûçe) broadcasts from; i.e. Belgium, Norway and Sweden.”
Belmer tried to defend stopping Med Nûçe’s broadcast by RTÜK’s demand by saying “RTÜK is a member of the supreme councils of broadcasts in Europe” and claimed they were acting according to French and European law.
The International Federation of Journalists reacted strongly to the stopping of Med Nûçe’s broadcast and pointed out that right before Eutelsat, Türksat had closed some 20 television and radio networks.
Meanwhile, Jean-Louis Malterre from Med Nûçe’s legal team spoke to the AFP and said they were preparing to appeal Eutelsat’s decision.
