Three Turkish Media Groups Attack WAN-IFRA Report Slamming Government Pressure, Particularly The Massive Dogan Fine

Philip Stone December 3, 2009 Follow on Twitter

The World Association of Newspapers and Newspaper Publishers (WAN-IFRA) resolution and report critical of Turkish government pressures on press freedom hasn’t set well with all Turkish media with three groups strongly criticizing accusations against the ruling Justice and Development Party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

In September the government imposed a 4.8 Billion Turkish Lire (€1.7 billion) fine on the Doğan Media Group for alleged tax evasion (see full details here) which many around the world, particularly in the EU which is considering Turkey’s application to join the EU, saw as a way to try and silence a major media group critical of the government. Doğan has failed to reach any compromise with the Turkish state and is now in the process of trying to sell various companies in order to pay the fine.

WAN-IFRA, meeting in India at its annual Congress, issued a report on Turkey claiming “the government continued its campaign against the influential Doğan Group, which owns, among other media, the top-selling daily Hürriyet newspaper and CNN Turk, with a massive new tax fine of 1.7 billion Euros in September for allegedly evading taxes, charges which experts say are groundless.” But a statement read out at the conference signed by Bülent Keneş on the behalf of the Zaman Media Group, Suna Vidinli on the behalf of the Sabah Group and Ergun Babahan on behalf of the Star Group, said the report was “biased” and relied solely on what Doğan had told WAN-IFRA.

“We had expected a more objective and unbiased position by such internationally acclaimed platforms as WAN and the WEF (World Editors Forum). We find it misleading on the part of WAN and the WEF not to consult Turkish members of WAN, apart from the Doğan Group, while preparing an overview of the status of media freedom in Turkey. It is worrisome that the committee reviewing the status of Turkish media is evidently unaware of what is actually a threat to the freedom of the media in Turkey.” It noted, “Equating a tax evasion case with media freedom is an oversimplification of the matter. We hereby request our statement of dissent to be published at the end of the WAN statement concerning Turkey.”

Doğan had run into trouble with the prime minister last year, also, when it began asking questions about a German criminal investigation into a Turkish Islamic charity with links to the government. Coincidence or not, in February the taxman hit Doğan with a €345 million fine. And then in September came the far bigger second barrel of an additional €1.7 billion fine. Hürriyet, Doğan’s main newspaper, reported extensively on the WAN-IFRA report saying it focused on “particularly the draconian fines.”

The prime minister in October told the Wall Street Journal that the fines had nothing to do with stifling the media. Instead, he said, think of the famous Chicago gangster Al Capone that the US government could only nail for tax evasion resulting in 11 years at the infamous Alcatraz prison. “The issue here is of a routine tax examination. In the US, too, there are people who have had problems with evading taxes. Al Capone comes to mind. He was very rich but spent much of his life in jail….Nobody raised a voice when those events happened.”

In addition to its report on Turkey, the WAN-IFRA Board also passed a resolution against what it called, “the mounting judicial actions and intimidations facing journalists and independent media in Turkey.” It also said “There were grounds to believe that the (tax) case might be politically motivated and aimed at silencing the Dogan media.” And it decried that “Dozens of journalists have been arrested and detained since 2007 in an ongoing investigation against the Ergenekon group, a clandestine crime network suspected of plotting to topple the government.”

The resolution called for “Turkish authorities to cease the campaign of intimidation of journalists and media and to ensure that legal norms, including tax laws are applied fairly and transparently, not used as a tool to intimidate the press. It urges the Turkish government to firmly commit to the rule of law and to uphold international standards of freedom of expression and freedom of the press.”

Doğan’s Hürriyet report on that said, “WAN-IFRA also slammed the detention of dozens of journalists since 2007 in an ongoing investigation into Ergenekon, an alleged clandestine crime network suspected of plotting to topple the government. The cases of Adem Yavuz Arslan from daily Bugün, Şamil Tayyar, Nerima Aydin and daily Cumhuriyet’s Mustafa Balbay were mentioned in particular.” So, it seems, Dogan is not yet playing dead!

And it wasn’t only from the WAN-IFRA meeting that the Turks were getting heat. The European Parliament is not happy, either. Ria Oomen-Ruijten, the Dutch Christian Democrat who is the Parliament’s designated rapporteur on the Turkish EU application, this week discussed the Dogan fine at the Parliamentary Subcommittee on Human Rights. “In my opinion this fine is disproportionate and something should be done about this,” she declared. But she noted that Dogan can’t have it both ways -- using the power of the press to push for what it wants and yet accusing the government of cracking down when things go wrong. “The main problem in freedom of the press is this: You are active in the media and other commercial fields as the owner of a holding and you’ve been using the power of the media which is part of your holding for clout. There is the need for a separate legal arrangement for settling this issue,” she said.

A draft report before the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee that it started debating Wednesday suggests Turkey needs a new media law. The report said there was concern “about continued restrictions on press freedom, particularly following the imposition of an unprecedented fine on a media group, as well as regarding frequent website bans; (it) stresses that the cultivation of press freedom is an important sign of political culture in a pluralistic society; (it) recommends that in this context, and in light of the unhealthy links between media and business interests, a new media law be adopted.”

But will Doğan still own its media holdings by the time such a law gets passed?

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