ISTANBUL - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that radio and television organs should not make any concessions of their broadcasting principles in order to give accurate information to public.
Speaking in the 40th General Assembly of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) in Istanbul, Erdogan said that 2003 was an active press and information year for Turkey.
Erdogan recalled that Istanbul hosted World News Agencies Summit last April and expressed pleasure to host ABU General Assembly this time.
Pointing out that 40th ABU General Assembly had a special importance, Erdogan said that, ''in our culture, a person at the age of 40 is considered a mature person. Therefore, we can say that ABU has reached the age of maturity. ABU which has become matured thanks to its experiences will also continue its successful initiatives from now on.''
Stating that public broadcasting had gained more importance in the globalizing communication order, Erdogan said that radio and television organs undertook important duties to help a reliable international communication.
Erdogan went on saying, ''public broadcasting is a sector, the role of which can never be denied in preservation of democracy, human rights, in social development and a non-governmental formation. In this sense, I would like to state that ABU, which has successfully fulfilled its duties since 1964 and which has 101 members in 52 countries, is fulfilling a very important duty.''
''But, radio and television organs should not make any concessions of their broadcasting principles in order to give accurate information to public. This can be possible by financial and administration autonomy of broadcasting organs, their transparent capital structure, and editorial independence of the personnel of news cadres,'' Erdogan said.
Erdogan stated that guarantee of labor rights of personnel of broadcasting organs and elimination of concerns of the personnel over their future were indispensable requirements of a reliable broadcasting.
''I would like to emphasize the importance that the sine qua non condition in broadcasting is that employees of press organs should have an unshakable belief and confidence and should never make concessions of their principles. Otherwise, all measures to be taken and all legal arrangements to be made will be in vain,'' Erdogan added.
(BRC-Öª) 09.10.2003