Police target journalists on "Army Day"

Mustafa Akyol writes that the attempted military coup in Turkey on July 15 and subsequent crackdown by the Turkish government has “opened a whole new chapter in the nation’s history. The followers of Fethullah Gulen, seen by most political groups and ideological camps as being behind the coup, have become the national 'enemy within.' This perspective, of course, has quite worrying consequences, for it leads to collective demonization and punishment, and the Gulen community includes many innocent people who are unaware of the group’s darker side. How to uphold the rule of law in the face of hysteria over a powerful threat is a challenge that should concern everyone.”

The collective demonization and punishment described by Akyol includes independent media and journalists. Even before July 15, Turkey ranked 151 out of 180 countries on the Reporters Without Borders “Press Freedom Index,” which described a campaign by the Turkish government in which “journalists are harassed, many have been accused of 'insulting the president' and the Internet is systematically censored. The regional context — the war in Syria and Turkey’s offensive against the PKK [Kurdistan Workers Party] Kurds — is exacerbating the pressure on the media, which are also accused of ‘terrorism.’”

The report adds that “the media and civil society are nonetheless resisting [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan’s growing authoritarianism,” as is well-known to readers of Al-Monitor’s Turkey Pulse.