Turkish prosecutors on Monday opened a criminal investigation into accusations a popular television talk show broadcast “terrorist propaganda” when a caller from the southeast raised alarm over the human cost of the relentless military crackdown on Kurdish rebels.
Istanbul prosecutors said in a statement they would examine the recording of the Friday night edition of the Beyaz Show on Kanal D and would also investigate the programme’s producer and presenter.
The controversy has erupted as the military presses on with its campaign against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Kurdish-majority southeast, which the Government says is aimed at flushing out militants but activists claim has killed dozens of civilians.
The female caller, who said she was a teacher named Ayse Celik from the Kurdish-dominated city of Diyarbakir, urged people to raise their voices against what she said was the killing of “unborn babies, children and mothers.”