News service failed to reflect a range of views when guests accused Turkey of waging ‘genocidal war’ against Kurds, says regulator

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The Kremlin-backed TV news channel RT breached broadcasting regulations after guests on a current affairs show accused Turkey of waging a “genocidal war against the Kurds” – the 15th time the station has been censured by media regulator Ofcom.



RT, previously known as Russia Today, broadcast the allegations in two editions of its thrice weekly show, Going Underground, which aired in March this year.

Among a number of allegations on the programme it said Turkey had been supporting Islamic State while conducting the “bloodiest genocide in Kurdish history”.

One interviewee, Mark Campbell, said: “Turkey are not attacking Isis, Turkey are attacking the Kurds … Turkey are carrying out a genocidal war against the Kurds in Turkey. The British government have supported Turkey’s repression and war against the Kurds.”

Another guest, Muharrem Erbey, told the programme: “What’s happening … is not a genocide, but an ethnicide agisnt the Kurdish people … the bloodiest genocide in Kurdish history. We … have evidence that Turkey in the region is supporting Isis.”

A third interviewee, Michelle Allison, called on the British government to “condemn the Turkish government’s systematic torture and systematic attack on the Kurdish people … the Turkish fight against Kurds are [sic] actually weakening the fight against Isis.”

In its response to Ofcom, RT said it had “regularly tried to contact the Turkish ministry of foreign affairs” but said “due to political tensions between Russia and Turkey following the downing of a Russian military aircraft by Turkish warplanes in November 2015, some pro-Turkey speakers purposefully ignore RT’s requests for comment due to seeing a Russian TV station as the ‘enemy’”.

RT said its audience would “expect the programme to explore particular topics solely from the perspective of those not represented in the mainstream UK media” and would not have “expected the Turkish government’s view to be explored in detail or for RT to be overly critical or challenging towards the views represented in the programmes”.

In its ruling published on Monday, Ofcom said: “We disagreed. Just because a contentious political issue is receiving little coverage within the ‘mainstream UK media’ does not obviate the need for the broadcaster to provide alternative viewpoints on such an issue where appropriate.

“It is a fundamental requirement of an Ofcom licensed service to reflect alternative viewpoints, as appropriate, when a programme is dealing with a matter of political controversy or matter of current public policy.”

It added that the programme had contained a “number of highly critical statements” about the Turkish government and said it was concerned that there was only one comment in the two programmes that directly referred to the Turkish government’s point of view.

Ofcom said the channel had “failed to preserve due impartiality in these matters over a series of programmes taken as a whole”.

A spokeswoman for RT said: “We note Ofcom’s decision and want to make clear that the premise of our programme and the factual accuracy of our content have never been called into question.

“It is Going Underground’s mission to unearth the stories ignored by governments and mainstream media. This programme was raising an exceptionally serious issue related to possible atrocities committed by the Turkish military on the civilian Kurds in the town of Cizre. This shouldn’t be ignored.

“We will continue to campaign for international attention and support in preventing further bloodshed.”