Turkey's Government Squeezes, Media Persists

Michael Hedges June 21, 2010 Follow on Twitter

The relationship between the Turkish government and the country's media has gone from sour to simply rotten. Using a variety of judicial and administrative rulings, the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has chased journalists, television channels, newspapers and their owners giving the appearance, at the very least, of a war over words. International condemnation has little effect on a country - and leaders - moving in their own direction.

Owners, directors, editors and journalists of weekly newspapers Yedinci Gün and Toplumsal Demokrasi brought complaints to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against the Turkish government charging violations of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the provision for freedom of expression. A Turkish court suspended publication for a month in January 2008 the pro-Kurdish newspapers for “spreading terrorist propaganda” under anti-terrorism laws.  The ECHR passed judgment (June 15) and fined the Turkish government €22,600.

“Less draconian measures could have been envisaged, such as the confiscation of particular issues of the newspapers or the restriction on the publication of specific articles,” said the ECHR statement. “The domestic courts had unjustifiably restricted the essential role of the press as a public watchdog in a democratic society.”

Separately, the ECHR (June 16) fined the Turkish government for the 2003 arrest of photojournalist Müjgan Arpat at the ‘Women's appeal for dialogue on Kurdish question’ demonstration.

Anti-terrorism laws are but one legal avenue for the Turkish government’s attempts at bringing the country’s media to heel. Libel laws are increasing used to discourage criticism of authorities. Press freedom advocate Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) noted (June 18) that six journalists in Turkey “have just been or are probably about to be sentenced to pay disproportionate amounts in damages as a result of libel actions. The size of these damages awards shows that the intent is to silence outspoken media.”

New media has not escaped the wrath of Turkey’s authorities. Video website YouTube was blocked in 2008 when a court ruled a video posted to the site insulted the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Turkey’s Telecommunications Directorate ordered several Google services blocked earlier this month (June 4), including Google Maps, Google Translate, Google Docs, Google Analytics and Google Books. Officially, that action was taken because Google, which owns YouTube, redirected IP addresses to circumvent the YouTube ban.

“No matter how big Google is, this doesn’t concern us,” said Transport and Communications Minister Binali Yildirim (June 8), quoted by Today’s Zaman. “In order to lift the access ban, it must do as everybody else has to and resort to judicial and legal procedures.” The reasoning for the access ban seems clear enough. Google needs to pay, Minister Yildirim said, mentioning a TRY 30 million (about €15 million) Finance Ministry tax assessment against the global search giant.  

Tax assessments, huge ones, are common against private sector media in Turkey.  Last year, Dogan Media Group was fined €1.7 billion by tax authorities, more than the company’s market value. Principal shareholder Aydin Dogan has been a critic of Prime Minister Erdogan. Dogan Media Group owns two of the four top television channels in turkey and three major newspapers. Prime Minister Erdogan was not pleased by coverage by Dogan Media outlets of a scandal involving Erdogan’s political party - Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Aydin Dogan stepped down as company chairman in January after prosecutors announced he and others would be facing criminal charges of intentionally causing the company to lose money. He remains Honorary Chairman of Dogan Holdings. In April, Turkish Weekly called Dogan “Turkey’s biggest taxpayer,” personally paying TRY 19 million in 2009, about €10 million.

Another pillar in Turkish authorities’ quarrel with the media is the use of libel laws to punish critics. The targets are typically candid critics, sometimes speaking on major television channels and sometimes writing in tiny newspapers.

Turkish writer, poet and playwright Ataol Behramoglu will yet stand trial for criticizing Prime Minister Erdogan and the AKP on the television news channel CNN Türk. The Ankara 15th Criminal Court of First Instance rejected (June 9) his defense attorneys request to drop the charges, which carry a possible €10,000 fine. CNN Türk is a joint venture of CNN (Time Warner) and Dogan Media Group.

Libel charges against journalist Mustafa Koyuncu are “most disturbing,” said RSF (June 18) in an extended report on Turkey’s libel laws. Koyuncu writes for a small newspaper in the southwestern town of Emirdag. He was charged with defaming police officers after writing a corruption exposé in 2007. Each of the police officers are demanding compensation that would total €22,000. Koyuncu also faces six years in jail. The case comes to trial in August. The newspaper “has a print run of 500 copies and would take 11 years and eight months to pay off such a large amount,” noted RSF.

Turkey’s politicians – certainly Prime Minister Erdogan – rarely blink at international condemnation. Internal critics still wield a significant degree of Fourth Estate authority, threats of heavy fines and prison terms notwithstanding. The contradictions define post-modern Turkey. President Abdullah Gul famously used his Twitter account to express his disapproval of the YouTube and Google bans, reported the AP (June 11). “I do not want to see Turkey classified as a country that bans YouTube, that has no access to Google,” he Tweeted to his 28 thousand followers.

See also in ftm Knowledge

Media in Turkey

With roots in the East and branches in the West, media in Turkey is big, bold and sometimes government controlled. This ftm Knowledge file shows the size and the shape of this rich media market. 30 pages PDF includes Resources (December 2009)

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