TURKEY: NEW LEGAL MEASURES ON BROADCASTING IN AND TEACHING OF NON-OFFICIAL LANGUAGES (fwd)

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Forwarded From Mercator
http://www.ciemen.org/mercator/index-gb.htm

TURKEY: NEW LEGAL MEASURES ON BROADCASTING IN AND TEACHING OF NON-OFFICIAL
LANGUAGES

February 2004 Two legal measures have been recently adopted in Turkey
concerning its numerous minority languages, the so-called languages and
dialects used in daily lives of Turkish citizens: a bylaw on broadcasting
in non-official languages, enacted on 25 January 2004, and a regulation on
the teaching of non-official languages, adopted on 5 December 2003. As
regards the bylaw on broadcasting, it applies to the public station (TRT)
as well as to the private ones and, despite allowing a certain use of such
languages, it declares that the language of broadcasts shall be
essentially Turkish and that the broadcasting only in non-official
languages shall not be permitted. Among the provisions are the following:
radio and television broadcasts in non-official languages shall include
translations into Turkish (radio)  and subtitles (television), the
programmes in such languages shall be the news or programmes on music and
traditional culture, but the teaching of non-official languages shall be
prohibited, and the broadcasting in such languages in televisions may only
be up to 45 minutes per day and 4 hours per week, while radio broadcasts
shall be restricted to 60 minutes per day and 5 hours per week. Moreover,
the bylaw stipulates in a provisional article that until a profile of the
audience is made, broadcasts in non-official languages shall be done only
by statewide televisions and radios. And as regards the regulation on the
teaching of non-official languages, unlike the previous regulation of
September 2002 the new one does not require the approval of parents of
students below 18 years of age allowing their attendance in such courses.
However, these students will only be allowed to receive teaching of
non-official languages as long as they do not fail to attend school, where
they learn Turkish.