“As millions of listeners can easily attest, Açık Radyo cannot be silenced thanks to the social impact it has created over the years,” the station wrote in a post on X, vowing to return to the airwaves.
“We invite all our listeners, professional organizations and the international community to raise their voices much more clearly and loudly this time against this decision, which has caused an irreparable loss in terms of press and broadcasting freedom in Turkey.”
The media regulator didn’t comment on the closure of the station, but İlhan Taşçı, a member of the main opposition party CHP, said it was “unacceptable” to close the station as it had “complied with all the rules” during its 30 years on the air.
According to Açık Radyo’s post, the community radio station has amplified civic voices in many areas including on climate and environmental issues, gender equality and multiculturalism.
The station’s slogan — “open to all the sounds, colors and vibrations of the universe” — was echoed in the last song it played on the air, the 1966 Beach Boys hit “Good Vibrations.”
Under the autocratic leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey has become a hostile environment for independent media, and several international organizations have called on European Union institutions to protect freedom of expression and the rights of journalists in the country.
