Med-Tv

EDM number 1094 in 1995-96, proposed by Robert Parry on 03/07/1996.

That this House notes that MED-TV commenced regular transmission of its multi-lingual programmes in May 1995, meeting the needs of 35 million Kurdish people; acknowleges the achievement of this small company in providing programmes in Kurdish, Turkish, Assyrian and Arabic across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, covering some 34 countries; recognises that MED-TV is a legal company, privately owned and licensed and monitored by the Independent Television Commission, that it has fulfilled all its legal and contractual obligations and that it operates within the European Convention on Trans-Frontier Television; records with concern that broadcasts in the Kurdish language are prohibited by the Turkish government and that the Turkish government has been exercising pressure on European governments to close down MED-TV; notes with regret that Germany, France, Spain and Portugal have bowed to political pressure from Turkey; and deplores the recent action by Poland in vetoing a contract due to commence on 2nd July and denying MED-TV access to Eutelsat, thereby denying millions of Kurdish people in Turkey access to a television channel in their own language.

This motion has been signed by a total of 22 MPs.