ANKARA — A digital clock appeared on Turkey’s pro-opposition Sozcu TV, counting down the hours — 12 and ticking — toward going off the air. The channel faces a possible 10-day blackout widely viewed as a fresh front in the country’s intensifying crackdown on dissent.

“When the clock strikes 12 [5:00 p.m. ET], Sozcu TV will go off the air,” Serap Belovacikli, an anchorwoman at the channel, told her viewers earlier Tuesday. “But will we give up? No! We will not stop being your voice.”

The silencing comes amid a widening crackdown on the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) which has sharply escalated over the past week. Three more CHP mayors — including in former ruling party strongholds that flipped in last year’s historic local elections — are now in detention, fueling growing alarm over the state of democracy in the country.

RTUK, Turkey’s media and radio watchdog, slapped the outlet with a 10-day broadcast ban on March 27. Sozcu appealed the decision, but an Ankara court — which initially granted a stay of execution — reversed its decision days later. Launched in 2023, Sozcu TV is the broadcast arm of the Sozcu daily newspaper — one of Turkey’s most widely read daily papers, known for its staunchly secular, pro-opposition stance. While the TV channel itself is relatively new, the daily has long been a vocal critic of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government, leading to its frequent targeting by tax probes and fines.

As of this writing, the outcome of the channel’s second request for a stay of execution remains unclear. If the court rejects the appeal or fails to issue a ruling in time, Sozcu TV will go off the air for 10 days beginning at midnight Turkey time.

RTUK does Erdogan's bidding

The ban reminds “us that RTUK is acting as an arm of the presidency intent on doing the bidding of the executive, and ignoring the public’s right to information and basic tenets of free speech," Emma Sinclair-Webb of Human Rights Watch told Al-Monitor.

RTUK is officially an independent body but is widely seen as operating........

© Al Monitor