Turkey Shuts Radio Station in Kurdish Southeast 

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Turkish prosecutors closed on Wednesday a
local radio station in the mainly-Kurdish southeast that had broadcast songs in the Kurdish
language.

Prosecutors said the decision had been taken because Gun Radyo's broadcast frequency
interfered with other wireless frequencies.

But station owner Nevzat Bingol labelled the decision "purely political" and said authorities
were trying to crack down on stations broadcasting in Kurdish.

His local television station, housed in the same building, broadcast live as officials came to
confiscate radio equipment.

Like many other small stations trying to work around strict legal curbs on Kurdish-language
broadcasting, Gun Radyo had played Kurdish music as well as Turkish and other songs.

DJs spoke Turkish between the songs.

Constitutional reforms passed last month as part of Turkey's efforts to meet EU membership
standards lifted legal curbs on TV and radio for the country's estimated 15 million Kurdish
citizens in their mother tongue.

But those changes have yet to be reflected in other laws, particularly laws governing radio
and television broadcasting. Gun Radyo was shut down under those articles.

Many Turkish officials are wary of allowing Kurdish broadcasting, and still maintain bans
on Kurdish education. They see the language as a threat to national unity and worry that
allowing it might encourage violent Kurdish separatism.
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