State-run network TRT gives Erdoğan 32 hours of coverage, Kılıçdaroğlu mere 32 minutes in one month
Turkey’s state-run broadcaster TRT, funded by the taxpayers, has aired Erdoğan’s live election speeches for 32 hours in one month, whereas allocated only 32 minutes to Kılıçdaroğlu’s rallies during the same period.
Duvar English
State-run Turkish Radio and Television (TRT) has shown 32 hours of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s live speeches during election rallies between April 1 – May 1, whereas aired opposition Nation Alliance’s presidential candidate Kılıçdaroğlu only 32 minutes during the same period.
The Turkish Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) members İlhan Taşçı and Tuncay Keser, from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), on May 2 released the figures after analyzing TRT’s live coverages of party leaders during election rallies.
Accordingly, Erdoğan’s ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli appeared for 25 hours on TRT’s election rally coverages, while İYİ (Good) Party leader Meral Akşener only 10 minutes in total.
Taşçı slammed TRT for favoring Erdoğan and his allies, saying: “TRT which has a characteristic of being a public broadcaster and continues its broadcast life with 85 million citizens’ taxes, exhibits that it has turned into the explicit propaganda vehicle of the (ruling Justice and Development Party) AKP.”
“And it is such that TRT acts like a public relations firm assigned to run the election campaign of the ruling party and its presidential candidate.”