Turkey's shameful state of media freedom
Following new police raids against Ipek Media, home to two newspapers and two TV news channels, Turkey's media suffers another blow.
On Oct. 28, just four days before Turkey's general elections, something happened in downtown Istanbul that should go down as a dramatic scene of global media history. A large team of bureaucrats and policemen raided the offices of Ipek Media, home of two newspapers and two TV channels. In fact, the police were blocked for a while at the gates by journalists and their supporters, some equipped with umbrellas to protect them from possible tear gas. Yet, the unwelcome guests crashed through the barricade by beating and handcuffing a few energetic defenders. Soon they entered the newsroom and, despite the protests of the personnel, shut down the broadcast.
A few hours later, the editors-in-chief of all four news outlets — Bugun and Millet dailies and Kanalturk and Bugun TV channels — were fired by staunchly pro-government figures. Many think that they will soon reinvent these media outlets, which are all critical of the government, as pro-government propaganda tools.
Why and how could this happen? And what does it tell us about the nature of the political regime in Turkey? Here are some facts and thoughts:
The silencing of Ipek Media came only two days after a controversial decision by Judge Yunus Suer, who had made a name for himself in 2014 for banning access to Twitter in Turkey. This time, he decided that Koza Ipek Holding, which owns Ipek Media and other companies, should be handed over to a government-appointed "trustee."
