A Turkish proposal to establish a broadcasting watchdog agency among 57 Muslim countries was officially approved on Thursday at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) conference in Gabon’s capital, Libreville. The decision effectively empowers the OIC with new tools to promote broadcasting of a positive image of the Muslim world on member countries’ television channels. The OIC was established in 1969 to protect and promote the interests of Muslims worldwide.
Officially named “The OIC Broadcast Regulatory Authorities Forum,” the platform can be used by Turkey to limit broadcasts by banned Kurdish Roj-TV, which is affiliated with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), in case the PKK in the future decides to use one of the OIC members’ local channels to broadcast terror propaganda. Turkey submitted the proposal to establish the OIC Broadcast Regulatory Authorities Forum in an OIC meeting in Dakar, Senegal, held from Oct. 11-13, 2010. The proposal was welcomed and approved for further exploration. The forum held its inaugural meeting in İstanbul on Nov. 17-18, 2011. It was officially approved at the Ninth Session of the Islamic Conference of Information Ministers of the member states of the OIC in Gabon this week. Saudi Arabia will host the forum’s second meeting later in 2012. The OIC describes the forum as a platform “intended to promote coordination, communication and cooperation among the authorities in charge of regulating broadcasting in member states, as well as to enhance the exchange of information, ideas and expertise on issues of common interest in the areas related to the services of the audiovisual media sector.” Turkey, which has adopted progressive laws regulating the national broadcast industry in line with EU directives and Council of Europe resolutions, used its experience to establish a similar platform within the framework of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC). The proposal was worked out by Turkey’s national media watchdog agency, the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) and was approved by 11 of the 12 member BSEC countries in the BSEC Information and Communication Technologies Working Group meeting held in Kiev, Ukraine on Dec. 4-5, 2007. BSEC members convened in Istanbul on 30 June 2008 and agreed to form the Black Sea Broadcasting Regulatory Authorities Forum (BRAF), scheduling annual meetings to promote cooperation and discuss the challenges facing the broadcasting industry. The BRAF has also been dealing with signal interference issues across borders on a technical level, resolving many issues that used to be dealt with with much difficulty at senior-level political meetings. Using the platform, Turkey denied PKK mouthpiece ROJ-TV from operating in BSEC member countries. In January, the Copenhagen City Court fined Roj TV and its parent company 2.6 million kroner ($445,000) each for broadcasting programs it said incite terrorism. It linked Roj TV to the PKK, which Turkey, the EU and the US consider a terrorist organization. The court ruling set a precedent for other businesses to sever ties with Roj TV. A Danish bank decided to freeze Roj TV’s Denmark-based accounts following the judicial ruling. Denmark’s Danske Bank froze all accounts held by the company in order to avoid being liable for prosecution as an accomplice to terrorist activities. Eutelsat, a leading provider of satellite telecommunications, said in January that it will no longer use its satellites to transmit Roj TV, citing similar concerns to those raised by Danske Bank. In the meantime, OIC officials underline that the broadcasting forum will be used in close coordination with a satellite TV channel to be launched under the OIC’s name. The OIC will use the international satellite TV station to project the voice of the Muslim world, report on Islamic causes, defend Muslim interests within the framework of Islamic solidarity among OIC member states and stand up to the repeated defamation campaigns against Islam and Muslims. The draft resolution said that “particularly in this age of globalization, where so many voices are rising which claim to speak on behalf of Islam, and where defamation campaigns have multiplied against our noble faith and its symbols, it has become more necessary than ever to give serious consideration to the idea of launching an international satellite TV station under the umbrella of the OIC.” The proposal garnered the support of all participants at the November 2011 İstanbul meeting.