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By <\/b>Burak Bekdil<\/b>*<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n April 27, 2018<\/span><\/p>\n BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 813, April 27, 2018<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The takeover of Turkey\u2019s largest independent media group by an Erdo\u011fan crony was not unexpected given the troubles and systematic state harassment suffered by the Dogan Media Company over the past decade. After the takeover, the opposition media will be limited to one large-circulation daily, a couple of small, left-wing newspapers, and a number of small digital platforms, with the third group now facing new pressure from the government.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n First the good news: Turkey, which is already the worst jailer of journalists in the world, may no longer need to put newsmen and -women behind bars. The bad news, however, is that there may no longer be any journalists left with sufficient editorial liberty to anger Turkey\u2019s Islamist strongman, President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan. This is because what most viewed as the last bastion of critical journalism in the mainstream press has been sold to a pro-Erdo\u011fan businessman.<\/span><\/p>\n In an $890 million deal, media tycoon and businessman Ayd\u0131n Do\u011fan, owner of the Do\u011fan Media Company (DMC), sold all the company\u2019s media assets to businessman Erdo\u011fan Demir\u00f6ren, whose primary interests are energy, construction, tourism, and media.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n DMC owned H\u00fcrriyet<\/i>, Turkey\u2019s most influential daily; the mass-circulation Posta<\/i>; and the main entertainment and news channels Kanal D and CNN T\u00fcrk; as well as Yaysat, the country\u2019s biggest print press distribution network.<\/span><\/p>\n The new boss does not have an impressive profile as far as the free press is concerned. In a leaked telephone conversation in 2014, Demir\u00f6ren was heard apologizing to Erdo\u011fan for an article in Milliyet<\/i> newspaper \u2013 which he had earlier bought from Do\u011fan. \u201cDid I upset you, boss?\u201d Demir\u00f6ren asked Erdo\u011fan, weeping and promising the then prime minister that he would find the source of the article in question.<\/span><\/p>\n The Do\u011fan-Demir\u00f6ren deal was a source of lamentation for the handful of independent journalists remaining in the country and joy for pro-Erdo\u011fan media workers. \u201cThe process of gathering the Turkish media industry in one hand according to the Putin model is completed,\u201d wrote Kadri G\u00fcrsel, a veteran journalist. But Cem K\u00fc\u00e7\u00fck, a fiercely pro-government commentator, congratulated Do\u011fan on Twitter. K\u00fc\u00e7\u00fck wrote that DMC journalists loyal to Erdo\u011fan could feel \u201cat ease.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n This was not a good day for a country that ranked 155th in the World Press Freedom Index of Reporters Without Borders. But none of this should come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the dynamics of the Islamist polity. The Do\u011fan-Demir\u00f6ren deal has a decade-long history behind it.<\/span><\/p>\n In the mid-1990s, when Turkey was not yet an EU candidate, a Turkish daily ran a series of news reports detailing a web of relationships among politicians, mafia figures, and businessmen. The series alleged, with evidence, that a $600 million bank privatization had been rigged in favor of a business crony of then Prime Minister Mesut Y\u0131lmaz. It also alleged that the mafia had scared off other bidders during the tender process.<\/span><\/p>\n In the aftermath of the news campaign \u2013 which would not have been possible in the EU candidate Turkey of two decades later \u2013 the government collapsed and Y\u0131lmaz was tried at the Supreme Court on charges of corruption. Although the charges were later dropped on technical grounds, a little bit of investigative journalism had unseated the prime minister, substantially pruned the votes of the mainstream parties, and, ironically enough, paved the way for the election victory of Erdo\u011fan in November 2002. Erdo\u011fan promised reform, broader civil liberties, and a better democracy.<\/span><\/p>\n Erdo\u011fan consolidated power in the mid-2000s and rediscovered his Islamist self toward the end of the decade.<\/span><\/p>\n In a public speech in 2008 he threatened DMC thus: \u201cWe will speak the language that you understand.\u201d Erdo\u011fan had devoted a good half an hour of his parliamentary speech to threatening \u201cthat media group [DMC]\u201d which, he claimed, was covering the then public controversy around the Islamic headscarf in a \u201cwicked way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n That speech prompted this author, a columnist in the H\u00fcrriyet group at the time, to write a sarcastic piece, \u201cH\u00fcrriyet<\/i> must be banned for better democracy,\u201d in September 2008.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn Mr. Erdo\u011fan\u2019s ideal democracy H\u00fcrriyet<\/i> should be banned. So should the opposition parties, opposition NGOs and all other groupings that oppose Mr. Erdo\u011fan\u2019s Muslim democracy. Anyone who threatens the \u2018pyramid scheme\u2019 these \u2018good Muslims\u2019 have built should be sent to jail \u2013 all for better democracy.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, Mr. Erdo\u011fan has zero tolerance for any criticism or opposition to his political empire. He gets easily annoyed not because his comrades are crooks but because someone verifies and the other publishes that they are crooks.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In another \u201clight\u201d column this author warned his employers at Do\u011fan against \u201ccorporate consequences\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe [Islamic headscarf] must be allowed not only in universities, but also in kindergarten too; actually [it] must be made a must-wear in government offices\u2026 the constitutional amendments to liberalize [it] are perfect examples that Turkey deserves full membership in the EU, since they make Turkey a perfect democracy\u2026 Long live Homo Islamicus Democraticus!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n And a word of caution to Do\u011fan: \u201cThis columnist\u2019s humble advice to Hurriyet\u2019s<\/i> publishers: Be wise, just do as I do and escape the corporate consequences.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Sadly, they did not take this advice. In 2009, the company was fined $2.5 billion for unpaid taxes, a figure that was bigger than DMC\u2019s market value at the time. That was probably the \u201clanguage\u201d Erdo\u011fan was referring to that Do\u011fan would understand.<\/span><\/p>\n In the same year, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal,<\/i> Erdo\u011fan played the Turkish reincarnation of Eliot Ness, the FBI agent who finished off gangster Al Capone. He told the WSJ: \u201cIn the US too there are people who have had problems with evading taxes. Al Capone comes to mind. He was very rich, but then he spent the rest of his life in jail. Nobody raised a voice when those events happened.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n With that Erdo\u011fan was likening a media tycoon he deeply (and ideologically) disliked to Al Capone \u2014 though Do\u011fan, far from being a notorious mob leader, did not have any criminal record or charges. By using the Capone analogy, Erdo\u011fan was confessing that while the problem with Do\u011fan was something other than taxation, taxation was the only way to hit him.<\/span><\/p>\n While all this was happening, a company run by Erdo\u011fan\u2019s son-in-law appeared as the sole bidder for the Sabah group, Turkey\u2019s second-biggest media outlet. Two state banks financed the takeover with loans at terms never made public. Erdo\u011fan, meanwhile, kept calling on his loyalists to boycott DMC outlets. Under pressure, a few of the most staunchly anti-Erdo\u011fan columnists at H\u00fcrriyet<\/i> had to resign. Ertu\u011frul \u00d6zk\u00f6k, a well-known secularist, stepped down as H\u00fcrriyet\u2019s<\/i> editor-in-chief but was given a column. Finally, Ayd\u0131n Do\u011fan, DMC\u2019s owner, quit as the company\u2019s president and a new generation of Do\u011fans took over the management.<\/span><\/p>\n After the Do\u011fan takeover the opposition will be limited to one large-circulation daily, S\u00f6zc\u00fc<\/i>; a couple of small, left-wing newspapers; and a number of small digital platforms, with the third group facing new pressure from the government.<\/span><\/p>\n Following the Russian way, Erdo\u011fan\u2019s government is now drafting a bill to broaden the powers of the already aggressive radio and television censor to include the Internet. The plan is to control what 80 million Turks are allowed to see on their computers or television screens. Turkey, which has on occasion banned or blocked access to Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook, as well as virtual private network services (VPNs), has also blocked Wikipedia in all languages. The opposition says the vague wording in the new legislation could mean that individuals, currently exempt from oversight, may now be targets for posting critical material on the web without a license.<\/span><\/p>\n The demise of Turkish democracy under Islamist rule has been slow but steady. It\u2019s time to gear up.<\/span><\/p>\n *Burak Bekdil is an Ankara-based columnist. He regularly writes for the Gatestone Institute and <\/i>Defense News and is a fellow at the Middle East Forum. He is also<\/i> a founder of, and associate editor at, the Ankara-based think tank <\/i>Sigma.<\/span><\/p>\n source:https:\/\/besacenter.org\/perspectives-papers\/erdogan-vs-free-press\/<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Burak Bekdil* April 27, 2018 BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 813, April 27, 2018 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The takeover of Turkey\u2019s largest independent media group by an Erdo\u011fan crony was … <\/p>\n