Turkish Cypriot private radio stations ‘owe millions’

Turkish Cypriot private radio stations owe public broadcaster BRT 10 million TL (€313,427), the corporation’s deputy transmitter coordinator Ugur Buhara said on Friday.

Buhara’s statements come over warnings that private radio stations could be taken off the air at the end of the year if their debts are not paid.

He explained that the average FM radio transmitter consumes 5,000TL (€157) worth of electricity per month and that given the other services provided by BRT to private radio stations, building usage fees and tower usage fees had also been requested.

He added that BRT had not requested usage fees for buildings or transmitter towers from private radio stations “in a show of good will”, but said private radio stations had refused to pay any of the money BRT had requested.

He said that with the money owed, BRT could buy solar panels to produce around 400 kilowatts.

Opposition ‘MPs’ had earlier warned the north’s ‘government’ to step in to stop private radio stations being taken off the air, with CTP’s Sami Ozuslu saying “you can either prevent this or you will go down in history as the government that silenced the radios.”

Fellow CTP ‘MP’ Asim Akansoy had said “the matter does not stay here, it ends in court. What is being done is nothing more than the government trying to run roughshod over private broadcasting and bully them financially.”

Private radio broadcasters themselves had also made their feelings clear, saying BRT had been demanding money even when there were technical faults at the Selvili Tepe transmission tower in Kyparissovouno, and that therefore radio stations are effectively being charged for energy they did not consume.