Criticism of crisis management: Turkish broadcasters have to pay a fine after reports of fires

The country's broadcasting authority (Rtük) has imposed fines on five TV stations for reporting on the fires in Turkey.

Rtük justified the decision by saying that posts spread fear and panic and were offensive to the government, the state news agency Anadolu reported on Wednesday.

The penalties are directed against Fox TV, KRT, Tele 1, Halk Tv and Haber Türk.

The stations had, among other things, made derogatory comments about the reaction of the Erdogan government to the fire.

The Islamic conservative ruling party AKP and its ultra-nationalist partner MHP have a majority in the body.

Rtük had already issued a warning to the media a few weeks ago regarding reporting on the fires.

In Turkey, the fires have been causing huge damage for two weeks, especially on the Mediterranean coast.

Among other things, the opposition criticized the government's crisis management from the start - for example, that initially no operational fire-fighting aircraft were available.

The government rejected the criticism - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called it “terror of lies”.