ANKARA: Opposition lawmakers attended a parliamentary meeting with their eyes blindfolded and mouths taped in protest at the government’s seizure early Wednesday of Halk TV, Turkiye’s most-watched news channel.
At a meeting of the parliamentary budget and planning committee, lawmakers from the main opposition Yeni Parti covered their eyes with a black ribbon and their mouths with black tape in images filmed by Anka news agency and published on Medyascope news website.
The protest took place after police staged a pre-dawn raid on the Istanbul headquarters of Halk TV, halting broadcasts and installing a government-appointed administrator in the latest move against pro-opposition media.
Halk TV chairman Cafer Mahiroglu condemned the move as “a dark day for Turkiye,” and criticism poured in from the opposition and rights groups.
Speaking to journalists outside Halk’s headquarters, Yeni MP Ali Mahir Basarir said it was “a saddening, shameful” move whose goal was “to silence” any dissent.
“There are only three or four channels left in Turkiye that tell the truth, the facts... that can act as an opposition, reporting what they see, exactly as it is,” he said.
“This democracy... these channels are needed by all of us,” he said.