Roj TV declares bankruptcy

Kurdish TV station is unable to pay the ten million kroner fines imposed on it after being found guilty of supporting the terrorist organisation PKK

Roj TV declared itself bankrupt today after losing a lengthy legal battle with the Danish state over the TV station's support of the PKK, a Kurdish separatist group that is on the EU’s list of terrorist organisations.

Copenhagen City Court found Roj TV guilty of supporting the PKK in January 2012 and fined Roj TV’s owners – Roj TV A/S and Mesopotamia Broadcast A/S – 2.6 million kroner each. The owners appealed against the decision, but last month the Eastern High Court upheld the guilty verdict, increased the fines to five million kroner each, and revoked Roj TV's broadcast licence.

Roj TV immediately lodged an appeal with the Supreme Court and requested to have the fines postponed until after the court makes a decision. Two weeks later, the Supreme Court said that it would hear the case but ruled that the fines had to be paid without delay.

Roj TV’s board stated in a press release today that the financial burden of the fines proved too much and the channel would have to close.

“We wish we could have done it more elegantly and with the genuine Kurdish fighting spirit that has always permeated our work to deliver current and informative TV with a Kurdish angle,” the board stated in the release. “But we have been forced to our knees. We can no longer promise our journalistic responsibility.”

The board also blamed Danish banks for the closure, as none were willing to let them open a bank account to hold money from contributors and supporters wanting to help pay off the fines.

“We thank all the many people who supported us over the years in spirit, courage and with financing as well as the creditors who time and again showed us patience,” the board stated. “Unfortunately we can no longer shoulder the responsibility.”

The closure of Roj  TV will likely please the Turkish authorities who have long sought to have the station shuttered because of its connection to the PKK. Since the start of the PKK’s armed struggle for an independent state in 1984, around 32,000 PKK members and almost 6,500 Turkish soldiers have been killed. A ceasefire was agreed upon earlier this year.

Far-left party Enhedslisten (EL) has supported Roj TV throughout the legal proceedings, which began in late 2005, and now argues that it is problematic that the station was closed before it had its case heard by the Supreme Court.

“It is a challenge to free speech if a TV station can be closed simply because the authorities found the reporting to be too one-sided,” EL's legal spokesperson, Pernille Skipper, told Jyllands-Posten newspaper. “It ought to be up to the TV station to decide what its news coverage should consist of. This is a big problem for free speech, which is why it is very sad that the station had to close.”




  • Chinese wind turbine companies sign pact to end race-to-the-bottom price war

    Chinese wind turbine companies sign pact to end race-to-the-bottom price war

    China’s 12 leading wind turbine makers have signed a pact to end a domestic price war that has seen turbines sold at below cost price in a race to corner the market and which has compromised quality and earnings in the sector.

  • Watch Novo Nordisk’s billion-kroner musical TV ad for Wegovy

    Watch Novo Nordisk’s billion-kroner musical TV ad for Wegovy

    Novo Nordisk’s TV commercial for the slimming drug Wegovy has been shown roughly 32,000 times and reached 8.8 billion US viewers since June.

  • Retention is the new attraction

    Retention is the new attraction

    Many people every year choose to move to Denmark and Denmark in turn spends a lot of money to attract and retain this international talent. Are they staying though? If they leave, do they go home or elsewhere? Looking at raw figures, we can see that Denmark is gradually becoming more international but not everyone is staying. 

  • Defence Minister: Great international interest in Danish military technology

    Defence Minister: Great international interest in Danish military technology

    Denmark’s Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen attended the Association of the Unites States Army’s annual expo in Washington DC from 14 to 16 October, together with some 20 Danish leading defence companies, where he says Danish drone technology attracted significant attention.

  • Doctors request opioids in smaller packs as over-prescription wakes abuse concerns

    Doctors request opioids in smaller packs as over-prescription wakes abuse concerns

    Doctors, pharmacies and politicians have voiced concern that the pharmaceutical industry’s inability to supply opioid prescriptions in smaller packets, and the resulting over-prescription of addictive morphine pills, could spur levels of opioid abuse in Denmark.

  • Housing in Copenhagen – it runs in the family

    Housing in Copenhagen – it runs in the family

    Residents of cooperative housing associations in Copenhagen and in Frederiksberg distribute vacant housing to their own family members to a large extent. More than one in six residents have either parents, siblings, adult children or other close family living in the same cooperative housing association.


  • Come and join us at Citizens Days!

    Come and join us at Citizens Days!

    On Friday 27 and Saturday 28 of September, The Copenhagen Post will be at International Citizen Days in Øksnehallen on Vesterbro, Copenhagen. Admission is free and thousands of internationals are expected to attend

  • Diversifying the Nordics: How a Nigerian economist became a beacon for inclusivity in Scandinavia

    Diversifying the Nordics: How a Nigerian economist became a beacon for inclusivity in Scandinavia

    Chisom Udeze, the founder of Diversify – a global organization that works at the intersection of inclusion, democracy, freedom, climate sustainability, justice, and belonging – shares how struggling to find a community in Norway motivated her to build a Nordic-wide professional network. We also hear from Dr. Poornima Luthra, Associate Professor at CBS, about how to address bias in the workplace.

  • Lolland Municipality launches support package for accompanying spouses

    Lolland Municipality launches support package for accompanying spouses

    Lolland Municipality, home to Denmark’s largest infrastructure project – the Fehmarnbelt tunnel connection to Germany – has launched a new jobseeker support package for the accompanying partners of international employees in the area. The job-to-partner package offers free tailored sessions on finding a job and starting a personal business.