Statement from the CHP delegation that met with the TRT Director General! What was his response to the question about 'injustice in broadcast hours'?

The state broadcaster TRT, which operates with citizens' taxes, did not give even 1 minute of airtime to CHP candidates Mansur Yavaş, Ekrem İmamoğlu, and Cemil Tugay during the local election process.

On the other hand, RTÜK member İlhan Taşcı shared that in the last 40 days, TRT Haber allocated 1945 minutes to AKP Chairman and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and AKP members, while only 25 minutes were allocated to CHP leader Özgür Özel.

Following these figures, the CHP took action and decided to hold a press conference in front of TRT; however, the press conference was canceled after TRT Director General Mehmet Zahid Sobacı granted an appointment to the CHP delegation.

The delegation, led by CHP Group Deputy Chairman Gökhan Günaydın, met with Sobacı. Making a statement after the meeting, Günaydın noted that Sobacı evaluated the broadcast durations as 'durations whose origin is unclear'.

Günaydın stated that when asked, "How do you define the clear injustice in broadcast hours?", Sobacı replied, "Editorial independence and impartiality must be evaluated together."

"HE SAID, 'EDITORIAL INDEPENDENCE, I DO NOT WANT TO INVOLVE TRT IN THIS'"

Günaydın's statement on the matter is as follows:

"We did not want to develop a political stance. Because we want to understand the state of mind of public institution managers and for Turkey to reach a cleaner, healthier environment. We met with the TRT Director General, and he said, 'TRT is a news organization and is obligated to provide news that carries news value.' We asked, 'Do you have an assessment that CHP news does not carry news value?', and he replied, 'No, the CHP is a deep-rooted party in Turkey and what they say carries news value.'

Upon this, we asked, 'How do you define the clear injustice in broadcast hours?'; he stated that 'Editorial independence and impartiality must be evaluated together,' said the Director General. We said, 'A person can be editorially independent but may not be impartial.' This is already very clearly seen here. We expected the Director General to make a statement regarding the durations reflected in the public eye. The Director General said, 'These durations were determined by some RTÜK members and we do not think they are correct.'

And he gave an example; 'Shouldn't one distinguish between the work the President does in his capacity as President and as AKP Chairman? Would it be correct to compare all the time allocated to Erdoğan with the time allocated to Özgür Özel with a wholesale approach? Furthermore, I do not want to involve TRT in a debate regarding durations whose scientific criteria for determination are unclear,' he said.

News Source: 12punto