VOA Broadcasting in Turkish
VOA Turkish is a multimedia news service. The website and mobile news service, along with social media, attract a high number of users. Interviews and broadcasts by VOA Turkish are frequently quoted in the Turkish media. Reporters of VOA Turkish send live feeds daily to most of the major TV networks in Turkey, a multi-party democracy. However, Freedom House and other international media watchdogs rate Turkish media as “not free.” Turkey’s media regulator RTUK censors, bans, and fines independent outlets frequently. In 2022, RTUK imposed an access ban over VOA Turkish’s website (amerikaninsesi.com) in response the Service changed its domain name to voaturkce.com. However, in 2023 RTUK banned this website as well.
Quick Facts
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Established: February 1942-1945, 1948 to present
Target Area: Turkey, Europe, Eurasia
TV Programming: 3 hours per week of live news & 6 hours of repeats M-S for EKOTURK TV Channel, including daily 30- minute live broadcasts M-F and a weekend show featuring American life, style and culture.
Programs and additional features available at:
Facebook:
X:
YouTube:
Instagram: |
Programs and Features
TV
VOA-EKOTURK ‘Studyo VOA’ - A 30-minute wrap of the latest news airing in Turkey at 10:30 p.m. local time, Monday through Friday. The newscast includes remotes from D.C., NY, LA, Paris, London and Berlin. Repeated twice daily.
VOA-EKOTURK ‘Life in America’ - A 30-minute program airing Saturdays on EKOTURK TV. It features American life, social and cultural trends as well as news about Turkish diaspora, new developments on technology and science. It is repeated twice throughout the day.
‘Washington Bureau Niche’ – Sözcü TV, CNNTURK, KANAL D, Haber Turk, Haber Global, Bloomberg TV, TGRT Haber, Halk TV, Tele1, KRT TV and NTV are using the service’s special reports and getting live hits from the service’s reporters on a daily basis. VOA Turkish follows the ‘Washington Bureau’ concept.
Web and Social Media
During Turkey's devastating earthquakes in 2023, VOA Turkish significantly increased its engagement: Between Feb 6-16, total SM video views increased by 1,134.27 percent, Instagram views by 220.72 percent, Twitter interactions by 522.6 percent, and YouTube video views by 3,406.2 percent.
Same record level increases repeated during crucial Turkish elections in 2023: Web page visits increased 90 percent. VOA Turkish video views on SM increased to almost 10M, interactions increased by 154 percent and engagements increased by 284 percent.
Digital
On April 29, 2019, VOA Turkish, along with BBC Turkish and France 24, launched +90, a DW sponsored YouTube Channel in Turkish. It is the first time DW, BBC, VOA and France 24 have joined forces in a media project of this caliber. Today, the number of subscribers to the +90 YouTube Channel has surpassed 741,000. Seven VOA Turkish videos are among top 15 viewed videos on the channel with more than 13 million views.