Over the past several years, the top columnists of Turkey’s Hurriyet daily, long recognized as the "flagship" of the Turkish press, have been sacrificed to government pressure. Two of those heavyweights — Emin Colasan and Bekir Coskun — have been recruited by Sozcu, a relative newcomer in the Turkish media, and will soon be joined by Yilmaz Ozdil, Hurriyet’s latest fallen star.

These seasoned columnists did not limit their government-bashing to Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), but as the AKP grew stronger, its tolerance for criticism thinned. Moving to re-design the media, the government unleashed tax inspectors on Aydin Dogan, Hurriyet’s boss, subduing him with gigantic fines. Unlike a few other bosses, Dogan did not whine and beg for mercy. But after each election Erdogan won, he sacrificed a couple of columnists, forcing them to resign, either through censorship or “compulsory vacations.”

Colasan, whose name was once synonymous with Hurriyet, was the first casualty, followed by a long list of prominent figures. Along with Colasan and Coskun, Sozcu’s lineup today boasts renowned journalists Ugur Dundar and Soner Yalcin, while Hurriyet’s former editor-in-chief Rahmi Turan is its chief columnist.

The highly popular Ozdil — long believed to be someone Hurriyet could not afford to sacrifice — resigned last month after his article was censored. “Five thousand people are working [at Hurriyet]. I would loath to see any of them suffer because of me. I quit and gave the boss relief,” he said. “Both the Turkish media and the Turkish people should stand by the Dogan family, which, through its newspapers and TV channels, is in the service of the nation. [If they are forced out of the media] Turkey can never fill the vacuum.”