Early in December, rumors surfaced of a sex tape, which allegedly involved Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s brother. None of the "marginal" news channels agreed to publish or share the recordings. A brave journalist from Odatv, Baris Pehlivan, told Al-Monitor that even though they received information, they chose not to publish it because they believe it is utterly wrong to spread news about the "private" lives of individuals. I wanted to view this as a positive step and the end of revenge politics. I was wrong. Now there is the rumor about sex tapes of 40 parliament members from the Justice and Development Party (AKP) about to be released.
On Dec. 17, however, hell broke loose in Turkey. Al-Monitor’s Turkey Pulse has provided good coverage of the current crisis involving three different cases of corruption with several prominent businessmen, sons of ministers and other high-level bureaucrats.
For months, Al-Monitor has witnessed along with other international publications how Turkish media suffer from lack of freedom. Mainstream media in Turkey have slowly come under the AKP’s control with a tacit understanding of "our way or no way." So there is the majority pro-AKP media and a few "marginal" TV channels, online and print publications available for audiences. The marginal standing is not because of their political viewpoints but because they dare to criticize. Another section of the "mainstream" media can be deemed "pro-Gulen movement" (also known as Cemaat, "Community," or Hizmet, "Service Movement"). Pro-Gulen movement media outlets have become increasingly critical of AKP policies as the now-notorious conflict between the movement and government intensified.
In the early hours of Dec. 17, when these well-known names were being taken into custody, only "marginal" channels were airing the news. Pro-government media were shell-shocked. Just as in the protests at Gezi Park on May 30, their first reaction was to stick their heads in the sand and hope that it would go away. A distinguished journalist who writes for the Taraf daily and appears on Arti1 TV channel, Ceyda Karan, told Al-Monitor, "In a country which had no corruption news for a long while, and one that involves cabinet members’ sons, instead of seeking detailed information on charges for the public’s sake, they took the prime minister’s first line and turned it into a headline, 'We will not bow.'"
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