The Vanquished Could Become The Winners

Michael Hedges June 25, 2018 - Follow on Twitter

Social media has turned everything, literally, on its ear. Its loyal followers continue to use the convenience, ubiquity and power. Traditional media, despite conventional conjecture, is far from spent. Political campaigners have many messaging options.

Winners in Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary elections have been announced. Voters have given president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) sufficient mandate, though slightly less than in previous votes, to rule the country for another five years. Given president Erdogan’s track records on media freedom and human rights, only his committed supporters and like-minded autocrats are cheering. Indeed, Hungarian president Viktor Orban was one of the first to send congratulations.

“Although under a state of emergency, biased media coverage and unfair playing field, (president) Erdogan managed to win the early presidential elections,” noted European Parliament repporteur to Turkey Kati Piri, quoted by bianet.org (June 25). The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which had monitors in Turkey, followed: “Restrictions on freedom of speech, media freedom and freedom of assembly impacted the vote.” None of this comes as a surprise.

Traditional news media in Turkey is, by and large, fully supportive of president Erdogan and the AKP, more so since the occasionally critical Dogan Media - daily newspaper Hürriyet and TV news channel CNNTürk - was acquired in March by construction company Demirören Holding, whose owners are seen as decidedly favoring president Erdogan. The transaction gave “those with close ties to Erdogan” control of “over 90 percent of the media in Turkey,” noted the Financial Times (May 29).

State broadcaster Turkish Radio and Television (TRT) was purged of staff and executives suspected of lacking loyalty to president Erdogan after the murky June 2016 coup. TRT News chief editor Ahmet Böken was sentenced in April to nine years and nine months in jail for “membership in a terrorist organization.” TRT refused to broadcast campaign ads for the secular center-left Republican People’s Party (CHP).

Denied access to traditional news media, mostly government controlled anyway, the full spectrum of opposition parties found their voice in new media. Peoples' Democratic Party's (HDP) candidate Selahattin Demirtas conducted press conferences via social media from his prison cell and bought ads on Google. CHP candidate Muharrem Ince, who received 30% of the vote - most ever for the party, had a team of social media experts, called the 10th Floor team.

The Good Party (lYl) of nationalist gadfly candidate Meral Aksener engaged in a coy messaging campaign by popping-up a popup when internet users in Turkey logged into virutal private networks (VPN), reported haaretz.com (June 13). “Don’t waste your money,” it said, “save it for when we are in power to enjoy complete Internet freedom.” Obviously, the message was directed at the web savvy.

Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp and Google have been periodically banned in Turkey since 2014. Twitter owned video sharing app Periscope is facing a black-out in a trademark dispute. Access to popular social discussion forum platform Eksi Sözlük slowed to a trickle Sunday “due to heavy traffic,” reported news portal T24 (June 24). According to the Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF) (June 22), Facebook, with 37 million users in Turkey, “favors Erdogan-related content over opposition news” under “promoted content.”

Six people were arrested during the final week of campaign rallies for “insulting state elders,” reported Hurriyet Daily News (June 24). The group was caught on surveillance cameras at a computer center hurling epithets on social media and “consuming alcohol” earlier in the week. They were identified as CHP supporters.

Roughly 650 international reporters and media workers were accredited to cover the elections, said state news agency Anadolu (June 24). French news outlets sent the most, 43, followed by 36 from the UK and 23 from Germany. State international TV channel TRT World (June 23) complained about “emotional and superficial reporting” from “much of the Western media.”

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