Turkey’s bleeding media is drifting fast into an abyss, which may soon become the final resting place of free and independent journalism in Turkey. The crisis at the Milliyet daily, a major hallmark in the Turkish press, deepened this week as editor-in-chief Derya Sazak resigned and columnist Can Dundar was fired in a phone call by the daily’s owner himself. The turmoil at Milliyet had boiled over earlier this year when veteran journalist Hasan Cemal was forced to quit after he criticized Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the media establishment. Fears are rife that the political “cleansing” at the paper will extend to other writers. 

A similar climate of fear has gripped the Sabah newspaper. Some reporters have been shown the door. At least two columnists have recently been censored on “orders” by management (one was critical of political counseling, while the other of the tax inspectors’ raid at TUPRAS, a company owned by the Koc business family, which has become the target of government ire). 

Murat Mentes, a columnist at the pro-government Yeni Safak daily, has also quit under pressure. 

Dedicated journalists have no doubts that the wave of intimidation is part of a government-guided project to redesign the media. The tremor rattling Sabah and Milliyet has an added significance. Both are two deep-rooted press establishments, representing respectively the liberal and social-democratic camps of the political center. Milliyet left its mark on Turkey in the 1960s and '70s, Sabah in the 1980s and '90s.