Arrested journalist Hidayet Karaca's letter detailing the threats that the media in Turkey face was published by Le Monde, one of the leading newspapers in France, on Monday.
Karaca, the chairman of the Samanyolu Broadcasting Group, has been imprisoned for 57 days following a media crackdown on Dec. 14 due to a fictitious TV series that aired on his TV channel.
In his letter to Le Monde, a daily with a circulation of 312,000 and which receives 64 million visitors to its web site monthly, Karaca said the independent media in Turkey is under an unprecedented threat.
In the letter that was published under the title “I am Hidayet Karaca, an arrested journalist in [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan's Turkey,” Karaca said he is not the first journalist to be arrested in Turkey, but given the authoritarian practices of the government, he will not be the last journalist to be arrested either. Karaca stated that the pressure on the media in Turkey goes far beyond what is visible.
Referring to the march of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu in Paris following the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo in January, Karaca said Davutoğlu's participation is both pleasing and ironic since the Turkish government argues that many journalists are imprisoned because of their terrorist involvement.
“The writer of this letter is among those terrorist-journalists ” Karaca pointed out, noting he has been a journalist for 22 years and is an executive of one of the five major media groups in Turkey with 14 TV channels broadcasting in different languages including Turkish, English, Arabic and Kurdish.
Karaca said his media group, along with the Gülen movement, also known as the Hizmet movement and inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, has been the latest victims of the “witch hunt” by the government. He added that any dissident in Turkey are proclaimed as being a “traitor” and his media group has become a target for not supporting the worsening conditions in Turkey.
Published on Today's Zaman, 09 February 2015, Monday
Related
Latest news, academic excerpts, commentary, book reviews and interviews on Fethullah Gulen and the Hizmet Movement (aka The Gulen Movement).
Search This Blog
Overview
Content from 164 countries/states
Categories
New Audio Podcast
Some Highlights
- Top Three Reasons Why Turkey’s President Erdogan is Obsessed with Gulen
- Turkish witch-hunt against the Gulen movement lacks one thing: Evidence
- Bill Clinton on Fethullah Gulen's contribution to the world
- Erdoğan’s war against Hizmet: Step by step
- Is Gulen Movement a religious order?
- Is the Gülen Movement a civil society initiative?
- Popular Islam – Hizmet-Gülen Movement and Fethullah Gülen
- Why do they lie about Fethullah Gülen?
- The Responsibility of the Hizmet movement
- Gülen movement is a chance for humanity, American professor says
- Gulen Movement: An attempt to represent Islam and Muslims positively
- Muslims Must Combat the Extremist Cancer
- The Place of the Gulen Movement in the intellectual history of Islam
- A Universal Islamic Phenomenon in Turkish Religious Practice: the Gülen Case
Suggested Readings
Disclaimer: Copyrights and ideas in the articles belong to their respective owners. Hizmet Movement (Gulen Movement) Blog may not be held liable from the content of articles nor their potential misuse by third parties. Articles shared are not necessarily endorsed. Links and images used in the blog posts may differ from those at their original source. Translated articles are solely intended for the convenience of the readers, and may include minor errors.