High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Vice-President of the Commission Federica Mogherini European Commission 1049 Brussels

Brussels, 10 October 2016

Dear Madam High Representative, Dear Ms Mogherini,

We are writing to express our concern over the most recent actions undertaken by the Turkish government under the emergency measures following the failed coup of last July. In particular, in the last days the government shut down several TV channels, most of which Kurdish, over alleged accusations of terrorist propaganda.

These include a Kurdish TV channel for kids, Zarok TV, the only existing channel for Kurdish children.

Apart from the dangerous impact of this action in terms of media pluralism and press freedom, targeting a channel dedicated to children is particularly worrying, as we believe it goes against the principles stated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, although we are aware that Turkey has a reservation on the articles the education of children belonging to minorities and on the role of the media in this regard. Such extreme measure appears as a severe overreaction, aimed at explicitly targeting the Kurdish minority, whose children will suffer negative consequences on their education and freedom, as they will not have a source of entertainment and information in their own language anymore.

We call on you, Ms High Representative, to convey our concerns on this sensitive topic to the Turkish authorities and to use your role to ask for reopening of all tv channels, in particular Zarok TV.

Yours sincerely,

Brando Benifei (S&D)

Marina Albiol (GUE/NGL)

Martina Anderson (GUE/NGL)

Margrete Auken (Greens/EFA)

Petras Austrevicius (ALDE)

Beatriz Becerra (ALDE)

Page 1 of 3 Goffredo Bettini (S&D)

Izaskun Bilbao Barandica (ALDE)

Malin Björk (GUE/NGL)

Lynn Boylan (GUE/NGL)

Matt Carthy (GUE/NGL)

Nikolaos Chountis (GUE/NGL)

Kostas Chrysogonos (GUE/NGL)

Anna Maria Corazza Bildt (EPP)

Javier Couso Permuy (GUE/NGL)

Paolo De Castro (S&D)

Isabella De Monte (S&D)

Mark Demesmaeker (ECR)

Ismail Ertug (S&D)

Tania Gonzalez Penas (GUE/NGL)

Nathalie Griesbeck (ALDE)

Takis Hadjigeorgiou (GUE/NGL)

Josu Juaristi Abaunz (GUE/NGL)

Eva Kaili (S&D)

Jude Kirton-Darling (S&D)

Dietmar Köster (S&D)

Stelios Kouloglou (GUE/NGL)

Miapetra Kumpula-Natri (S&D)

Patrick Le Hyaric (GUE/NGL)

Paloma Lopez Bermejo (GUE/NGL)

Monica Macovei (ECR)

Curzio Maltese (GUE/NGL)

Ernest Maragall (Greens/EFA)

Costas Mavrides (S&D)

Jean-Luc Mélenchon (GUE/NGL)

Martina Michels (GUE/NGL)

Luigi Morgano (S&D)

Page 2 of 3 Liadh Ní Riada (GUE/NGL)

Demetris Papadakis (S&D)

Dimitrios Papadimoulis (GUE/NGL)

Georgi Pirinski (S&D)

Miroslav Poche (S&D)

Soraya Post (S&D)

Elly Schlein (S&D)

Csaba Sogor (EPP)

Renate Sommer (EPP)

Barbara Spinelli (GUE/NGL)

Ivan Štefanec (EPP)

Helga Stevens (ECR)

Neoklis Sylikiotis (GUE/NGL)

Josep-Maria Terricabras (Greens/EFA)

Estefanía Torres Martínez (GUE/NGL)

Miguel Urban-Crespo (GUE/NGL)

Marie-Christine Vergiat (GUE/NGL)

Daniele Viotti (S&D)

Julie Ward (S&D)

Tomáš Zdechovsky (EPP)

Jana Zitnanska (ECR)

Damiano Zoffoli (S&D)

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