Statement from Özgür Çelik in front of the TRT Ulus building: We are voicing our call from in front of TRT

CHP Istanbul Provincial Chair Özgür Çelik said, "TRT will make a decision. Will it serve the public, its true owner, or will it take money from the public and serve a specific group?"

Çelik also stated, "For a year, they have been trying to pit us against the state's police in the streets and squares of Istanbul. They are trying to prevent us from expressing our thoughts as if there were an undeclared state of emergency in the country.

I am addressing the minority government in Ankara from here. Do not pit us against the state's police anymore. If you have the courage, you bring the ballot box that we are facing. Let us all see the ballot box together," he said.

ÇELİK CONTINUED HIS REMARKS AS FOLLOWS:

"We are reminding you. The Republic of Turkey is not a tribal state; it is a state of law. Those who manage TRT today are clearly violating their own founding law. It cannot be a state media outlet that officially competes with the government's partisan private media in terms of bias. Dear press workers, let us remember that they broadcasted edited videos during the 2023 presidential elections. Then they said 'it was an edit, it was an edit.' They made TRT operate like an AK Party bulletin during election periods. Since the beginning of the March 19 process, they have made TRT a tool for unimaginable slanders. They did not grant people the right of reply. They broadcasted slanders and lies on TRT that would violate the honor and dignity of dozens of our friends, trampling on the presumption of innocence. The slanders made were not included in the indictments. We saw that they were lies after the indictments were revealed. They did not even apologize. TRT is a 61-year-old institution. It has never fallen into such a disgraceful situation at any point in its history since the day it was founded. TRT used to have weight. TRT used to have respectability. TRT used to have an ethical line. Now, there is an institution that has officially turned into the government's propaganda machine.

Our issue is with the partisan managers who exploit TRT. Today, there is a test in front of TRT. We see it in the polls. Eighty percent of the public wants the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality case and the district municipality cases to be broadcast live. People from every party and every view want to watch this case live. The public, who pays for TRT and is the true boss of TRT, wants to watch this case. TRT will make a decision. Will it serve the public, its true owner, or will it take money from the public and serve a specific group? The government will make a decision. Will this law be passed in Parliament? Will the obstacles in front of people's right to receive information be removed? Will the live broadcast of the facts and the public's ability to see the facts be ensured? Or will the truth be hidden from the public? Will TRT be the government's broadcasting organ? Or will it make a decision that it is the state's respectable media? We are voicing our words and our reaction today from in front of the TRT building against a broadcasting approach that violates the rights to innocence and a fair trial.

Now, our final request is this. Three Republican People's Party group deputy chairs have submitted a proposal to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey regarding the relevant amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code. Since you prepared a 3,700-page indictment, since you have so much to say, and since courts in Turkey make decisions in the name of the Turkish Nation, then challenge accepted: let's watch these hearings together on TRT.

We are making this call with the heart of our Mayor Ekrem, with that big heart, with his righteousness, his faith, and his determination. We are calling on TRT from in front of TRT to engage in impartial broadcasting, and we are saying let TRT broadcast the hearings of Mayor Ekrem, our mayors, and our bureaucrat friends so that all of Turkey can see the lies.

We want TRT, which is a public broadcaster, to finally put an end to the persecution inflicted upon families and children through the biased broadcasting it conducts regarding individuals whose crimes have not been proven."