BBC Türkçe has stopped broadcasting television in Turkey due to local broadcaster NTV's interference in its editorial policies. The official statement from the BBC was published on Friday, June 14.

The BBC has stopped cooperating with NTV, which broadcasts BBC Türkçe, due to NTV's decision not to broadcast the Dunya Gundemi (World Agenda) program. “Any interference with BBC broadcasting is completely unacceptable, and given the increased level of attention to the situation in Turkey, the BBC's objectivity is extremely important,” the company said in a statement.

According to Agence France-Presse , NTV pulled the program “Dunya Gundemi” from the air due to a story that described how Turkish media initially kept silent about mass protests in the country. The story also included an interview with NTV director Ahmet Yeşiltepe, in which he admitted that the channel devotes too much airtime to the government to the detriment of the opposition.

At the same time, the Turkish service BBC Türkçe will continue to broadcast on the Internet on the website bbcturkce.com. In addition, BBC Türkçe will continue to connect with its audience on social media.

In early June, the BBC expressed concern that NTV had ignored the early days of the protests. However, as the company's world news director Peter Horrocks later said, NTV apologized to its viewers and assured the BBC that it would show its programs without interfering with their content.

The British media company BBC has been cooperating with the national Turkish television channel NTV, a partner of the American MSNBC, for several years. As part of the agreement, NTV broadcast the news program “Dunya Gundemi” and other BBC programs three times a week.

Protests in major Turkish cities began in June 2013. Initially, they were associated with the desire of Istanbul residents to protect Gezi Park from development, but after the authorities began to disperse peaceful demonstrations, they developed into anti-government protests. As a result of clashes with the police, five people were killed and about five thousand were injured. Protesters have repeatedly accused the country's main media of keeping silent about the protests, in particular about police brutality.

During a speech to his supporters on June 16, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Western media, including the BBC, of biased coverage of the protests and broadcasting false information. “Here is a photograph that represents our nation,” Erdogan said, pointing to the hundreds of thousands of people who had gathered to support him.

BBC stops broadcasting in Turkey due to censorship