Istanbul-based Açık Radyo (Open Radio) announced today it was being shut down by Turkish authorities, six months after a guest talked about the “Armenian Genocide” on air.

Açık Radyo went on air on November 13, 1995 and  is a regional, independent community radio station that broadcasts to the metropolitan Istanbul area and its environs.

Turkey’s broadcasting watchdog, the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK), had suspended Açık Radyo from broadcasting for five days in May for the program in question, which it said incited hatred.

Açık Radyo urged its listeners to raise “an even clearer and louder voice” against the shutdown and says it will legally seek to overturn the shutdown. 

Photo: Bianet