Under crackdown, Turkish media close ranks
Under government attack, Gulenist journalists are seeking support from colleagues whose imprisonment they once supported, warning that they could be next.
The latest judicial onslaught against journalists in Turkey has shone a spotlight on the deep rifts plaguing the country’s media and blighted efforts for a united defense of press freedom in the face of mounting threats.
Over the past several years, Turkey has earned itself the title of the world’s "worst jailer of journalists." During that time, journalists often became cheerleaders for the arrests that landed their colleagues behind bars. Those who found themselves in prison were typically pro-secular writers accused of colluding with the army in plots to overthrow the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government and discredit its then-ally, the influential community of the Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen. Kurdish media workers accused of collaborating with Kurdish rebels were also targeted.
The tables have now turned. With the mainstream media largely muzzled, the government has set its sights on Gulenist outlets after the AKP fell out with Gulen last year over large-scale corruption probes, which, the government says, were a coup attempt orchestrated by Gulenist police and prosecutors.
On Dec. 14, police armed with arrest warrants arrived at media offices from which some of the loudest cheers had risen during past crackdowns. Taken in for questioning along with other media workers were Ekrem Dumanli, editor-in-chief of the Zaman daily, the Gulenist media’s flagship, and Hidayet Karaca, chief of Samanyolu TV (STV). They face terror-related charges over newspaper articles and a soap opera that allegedly led to the unfair imprisonment of an Islamist preacher whom Gulen considered a rival.
