site.btaMovement for Rights and Freedoms Urges Powerholders to Reconsider Ideas to Remove Turkish Newscasts from National TV, Radio Programmes

Movement for Rights and Freedoms Urges Powerholders to Reconsider Ideas to Remove
Turkish Newscasts from National TV, Radio Programmes


Sofia, November 12 (BTA) - The Movement for Rights and Freedoms
(MRF) called on the powerholders to reconsider ideas on taking
Turkish-language newscasts off the air of the Bulgarian National
Television (BNT) and the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) and
warned that transferring these programmes to particular regions
is dangerous.

The reaction was prompted by a demand of the nationalist
Patriotic Front, which supports the incumbent Cabinet without
being part of it, that Turkish-language newscasts be removed
from BNT Channel One. On November 8, Deputy Prime Minister for
Coalition Policy Roumyana Buchvarova said on Darik Radio that
these programmes may be transferred to the BNT's
culture-oriented regional centres. "This product proved to be
quite expensive, and reorganizing this activity will cost extra
funds," Buchvarova added. A Turkish-language version of the BNT
afternoon news has been broadcast for 15 years now.

"The Turkish-language newscasts have not only an information
value but a much more symbolic value, because they demonstrate
respect for ethno-religious diversity," MRF Floor Leader Lyutvi
Mestan said, addressing Parliament on Wednesday.

"On behalf of the MRF Parliamentary Group, we earnestly call on
you to reconsider this position and to pay heed to the
exceedingly responsible and civilized position on the matter of
the head of State," Mestan said.

Asked about the idea to take the news in Turkish off the air,
President Rosen Plevneliev said on Tuesday that he does not
believe that this move "will improve the standard of living,
that people will become more democratic, that the economy will
be stimulated, more jobs created, and that Bulgarians will live
better."

"What does it mean to remove the news from the national
programmes and to transfer it to particular regions? Which
regions? You probably refer to Kurdjali, Razgrad, Shoumen,
Silistra, but this is dangerous, precisely this is not
patriotism, precisely this runs counter to the national
interest, because Bulgaria is sovereign, unitary and indivisible
and drawing ethnic territory on the map of Bulgaria by means of
radio and television signal is not a manifestation of
patriotism and does not further the national interest," Mestan
argued. He insisted that his party opposes a replacement of the
integration model by a model of segregation.

He recalled that by adopting the Radio and Television Act in
1998, which for the first time regulated the right of members of
minorities in this country to receive news in their mother
tongue from the national electronic media, Bulgaria "eloquently
proved that it was breaking with the negation of the
ethno-religious diversity that populates our country." In his
words, 15 years later attempts are being made to deprive them of
rights that they have already earned.

Mestan welcomed "the voices of reason" among representatives of
the ruling majority and expressed the hope that, after a
discussion, the ideas to take the news in Turkish off the air
will be reconsidered, taking into consideration, among other
things, this position of the MRF.