Censorship in the Turkish media

İhsan Yılmaz

The anti-AK Party bloc has discovered a few new weapons against the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the alleged AK Party censorship of the Turkish media is one them.

Freedom of the press is one of the crucial pillars of democracy and all democratic states, civil society institutions and individuals are rightly sensitive about this issue. After observing that even the EU officials who are well aware of Turkish facts and realities were negatively influenced by the huge media campaign against the AK Party, which insisted that freedom of the press is in danger in Turkey, it seems that the anti-AK Party bloc will continue to wield this newly devised tool.

Previously, they were claiming that the AK Party was gradually establishing a totalitarian dictatorship in Turkey. But they never answered the question, “If that is so, then, how come many Armenians in Turkey reportedly voted for the AK Party in the 2007 elections and will do so in the 2011 elections?” They can also never reasonably explain why a brave democrat like Etyen Mahçupyan, who is also known for his wisdom, is not alarmed, unlike the Doğan Media Group columnists, and continues to defend the position that the Ergenekon case is a chance for democracy to soar. They never mention what Hrant Dink said to the US officials, which was disclosed by WikiLeaks. They never mention what they did to Hrant Dink, Ahmet Kaya and Orhan Pamuk, who were simply exercising their right to freedom of speech. They also never bother to think about how Armenian, Jewish, Kurdish, socialist and atheist writers of the Taraf daily are not alarmed about the AK Party's intentions, but instead insist that the deep state and the Ergenekon terror organization must be challenged and eradicated. Any reporter or journalist covering Turkey will be considered biased unless they also talk to these people regarding Turkish democracy, the AK Party, the Gülen movement, freedom of the press and the Doğan Media Group. The bloc must also carefully analyze the group's shady relations with previous governments. They, for instance, talk to a former employee and editor-in-chief of Milliyet, Umur Talu, on this issue.

Now, by pointing to a number of journalists such as Ahmet Şık and Nedim Şener, the anti-AK Party group boasts that the AK Party government and the Gülen movement are going after journalists who criticize them. I am not sure about these two journalists and they may be innocent; only the final verdict of the court will tell. We must also not forget that not everybody who is charged and tried is found guilty. But while focusing on these two journalists, they never mention the other journalists. Take the Oda TV case for instance. They are also ostensibly journalists but nobody defends them in the Doğan Media Group. But why not? Are not Soner Yalçın and his friends also known as journalists? It is obvious that the issue is not simply about the government putting pressure on the critical journalists. Ahmet Şık was fired several years ago by the Doğan Media Group and unemployed when detained. He was not a major figure that the government and the Gülen movement would be afraid of. Nedim Şener was a columnist for a tabloid style paper (in terms of content) and he was not a major public figure either.

Fethullah Gulen

If you look at mainstream Turkish media, you will find many conspicuous media figures who consistently criticize the government, the Gülen movement, the movement's alleged presence in the Turkish police and its alleged involvement in the Ergenekon case: Kurşat Bumin of Yeni Safak, Ahmet Hakan of Hürriyet, Ahmet İnsel of Radikal, Ali Bayramoğlu of Yeni Şafak and Saygı Öztürk of Sözcü, who also published a book very critical of the Gülen movement and the Turkish police force; more columnists for Hürriyet, Milliyet, Radikal, Sözcü and Vatan dailies are in the same vein. But when their pieces are analyzed, it becomes obvious that in most cases most of these are not criticisms, but unsubstantiated allegations and conspiracy theories. They keep criticizing the government and the Gülen movement, but when asked by the Western reporters, they say that they are afraid to speak. Knowingly or unknowingly they are part of a psychological war campaign against both the government and the movement. If they are afraid, they are afraid of libel cases because in the past Fethullah Gülen won many such cases and was paid compensation. Major TV stations such as Kanal D, Star and Show are no different. Everyday it is possible to watch someone criticizing the government and/or the movement harshly but nothing happens to them.

I am not saying that the picture is perfect but it is not a picture of the death of freedom of the press. How many members of the bloc could criticize the military's lack of accountability to civilians? How many of them have so far criticized their boss Aydın Doğan and his strange business relations with the state? What is more, Doğan Media Group constantly refers to the prosecuted journalists who are critical of the AK Party and/or the movement, but never mentions the others. When they talk about the number of cases opened against the journalists they give a figure about 5,000 and this figure is indeed accurate but maybe 4,800 of them are cases against journalists who wrote about the Ergenekon case and overwhelming majority of these journalists are Taraf, Sabah, Zaman, Yeni Şafak, Star and Bugün writers. The bureaucratic oligarchy and judicial extensions of the military are still very powerful in the judiciary and they are simply pressuring these journalists so that the Ergenekon case will not be reported in the media. But the Doğan Media Group has never bothered about the freedom of press of these journalists as they are democrats who want the Ergenekon case to reach a verdict.

The Doğan Media Group, with few honorable exceptions, never thoroughly questioned the Ergenekon case and they are now fully supporting the CHP who is self-confessedly the advocate of Ergenekon terror suspects. If we are to talk about freedom of the press and censorship in Turkey, we also need to talk about the Doğan Media Group's last censor of the most recent Kılıçdaroğlu gaffe. The CHP leader obviously almost uttered a swear at the Prime Minister Erdoğan's mother, but the group mercifully pardoned him and did not focus on this issue as if a party leader's swearing were not newsworthy. Even just this incident shows their sincerity and the true colors about journalism and freedom of the press in Turkey.

Published on Today's Zaman, 27 April 2011, Wednesday