Danish prosecutor asks court to ban Kurdish TV

COPENHAGEN, Oct 07, 2010 (AFP) - A Danish prosecutor on Thursday asked a court to ban Roj TV, a Copenhagen-based Kurdish TV network, accusing it of supporting the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist organisation.

Prosecutor Lise-Lotte Nilas told AFP she had asked the Copenhagen district court to withdraw Roj TV's broadcasting licence because it violated Danish regulation prohibiting support for terrorist organisations.

In August, she charged that an in-depth investigation into the network's programming that had started in 2005 had found that it supported the PPK.

"We carefully examined a series of programmes on Roj TV, and our evaluation is that they have a character of propaganda for the PKK, which is a terrorist organisation," she said in a statement at the time.

Roj TV started broadcasting via satellite in 2004 towards 68 countries.

Turkey has asked Denmark to shut it down, as has the United States.

The PKK is blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by both the European Union and the United States.

It took up arms for self-rule in the Kurdish-majority southeast of Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed 45,000 lives.

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