Controversy On Roj TV
The Turkish Government claims the channel is a mouthpiece for the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), whom they regard as a terrorist organization, (as do the UK, U.S. and EU), and have lobbied the Danish government (so far unsuccessfully) to revoke Roj TV's broadcasting license. A Turkish Foreign Ministry official stated: "We know for sure that Roj TV is part of the PKK, a terrorist organization... is listed as a terrorist organization by the EU. Denmark is a member of the EU, and we would expect that the broadcasting organization of a terrorist group would not be given a free pass." While the station's general manager, Manouchehr Tahsili Zonoozi, an Iranian Kurd, acknowledges that the station maintains contact with the PKK, he characterizes it as an independent Kurdish broadcaster, which is not under the control of the PKK. The Turkish authorities have repeatably made formal complaints to the Danish Radio and Television Board regarding Roj TV, but to date none of the complaints have been upheld by the Board, who have ruled that the TV channel has not violated any rules over which the Board has regulatory power.
On 4 March 2010 Belgian police raided several locations including Roj TV's facilities. Belgian prosecutors said the raid was due to "very serious evidence that, in a very organised way, youngsters of Kurdish origin were recruited in western Europe, notably in Belgium". Programming was disrupted for a time but the channel returned to air.
As of August 2010, Roj TV has been formally indicted by the Danish attorney general for violation of Danish anti-terrorism legislation, specifically the rules against "promoting terrorist activities" of the Kurdish organization PKK. However the channel remains on air pending possible court proceedings.
As part of the United States diplomatic cables leak of November 2010, a diplomatic message surfaced that referred to a Turkish representative's claim that, "as part of the 2009 POTUS-brokered deal that had overcome Turkish objections to the appointment of Anders Fogh Rasmussen as NATO Secretary General, Denmark had promised to clarify its legal requirements prerequiste to acceding to Turkey's request for the closure of Roj TV"
On 10 January 2012, a Danish Court found the owners of Roj TV guilty of "promoting terrorism" and fined them 5.2 million Danish crowns ($894,800). The prosecutors stated that the TV station is "financed and controlled" by the PKK. On 26 January 2012, Roj-TV signed a broadcasting agreement with satellite provider Intelsat.
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