27 August 2009 / TODAY'S ZAMAN WITH WIRES , İSTANBUL
A recent amendment to the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation's (TRT) advertising regulations enables TV stations broadcasting in languages other than Turkish, including TRT 6 -- launched in January as the country's first Kurdish-language state television station -- to broadcast commercials in the language of the TV station.
TRT 6 was not able to broadcast commercials in Kurdish since the relevant regulations prohibited it. According to the amended regulations, TRT 6 will be able to broadcast advertisements in Kurdish, and TRT 6 will decide which advertisements to broadcast.Turkey has taken several steps towards solving its decades-old Kurdish problem. As part of these efforts, TRT launched the Kurdish TV channel, TRT 6, at the beginning of this year. With the new advertising regulations, TRT's Arabic, English and Farsi TV stations, which are planned to be launched by TRT soon, will also be able to broadcast commercials in the stations' languages.
