The Supreme Radio and Television Council of Turkey (RTUK) imposed fines on three TV channels which they criticized the government for the way he handled the disaster from them earthquakes that hit the country on February 6.

The channels Halk TV, Tele 1 and Fox TV they are asked to pay a fine while they were also ordered to stop broadcasting a program for “the information and comments they relayed about the earthquake” announced the Ilhan Tasji, a member of RTUK who comes from the opposition. The first two channels will pay a fine equal to 5% of their turnover for January while for five days they are prohibited from broadcasting one of their daily shows. Halk TV and Fox TV will also pay a fine equal to 3% of their turnover for January.

All three channels are critical of the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Halk TV is affiliated with the largest opposition party, the CHP.

“Once again, RTUK does not surprise us with its sanctions. Those who came to power criticizing repression now ban everything and expect us to obey them (…) Halk TV will continue to inform and Turkey will not be without news”, wrote Xafer Mahiroglu, the head of Halk TV, on Twitter.

“Acting like a censor board, RTUK will not be able to hide the truth by sanctioning the channels that broadcast the plight of the people in the earthquake affected areas. RUTK is committing a crime, ignoring the population’s right to information” reacted the president of the Union of Journalists of Turkey, Nazmi Bilgin.

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The Turkish government strongly criticized by the opposition and the independent media for being slow to react in the first hours after the earthquake 7.8 points. The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan he admitted last week that there were problems in organizing the rescue efforts, but insisted that the scale of the disaster was huge.

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“Their incompetence cost the lives of tens of thousands of our compatriots“, said head of the Republican People’s Party Kemal Kilicdaroglu.