Crackdown on Turkish media intensifies
Image: Michael Jerrard @michaeljerrard via Unsplash
At 6.30am on Wednesday, 14 October, live television and YouTube broadcasts on Turkey’s most-watched news channel came to an abrupt end, replaced by folk dancing and reruns of classic movies from the 1970s. Its social media accounts were also blocked.
Members of the financial crimes police launched a dawn raid on the Istanbul offices of Halk TV, which was placed under the control of a state-appointed trustee. The Financial Times reports riot police sealed off surrounding roads, barring employees from entering. Journalists were later granted access to the building, which continued to have a heavy police presence.
According to local media, arrest warrants were issued for 17 people – including the channel’s chair Cafer Mahiroğlu, with 11 taken into custody during the raid. The authorities say they are investigating Mahiroğlu for alleged bribery, tender rigging and money laundering.
Mahiroğlu denounced the allegations as “baseless”, describing the raid as an attempt to deny “the public’s right to access information … for political reasons”. The channel has often been critical of Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling AK Party and regarded as pro-opposition.
The Progressive Journalists Association based in Ankara said the appointment of a trustee and suspension of broadcasting at Halk TV “constitute a grave intervention against press freedom and freedom of expression” that “disregards constitutional rights and the public’s right to access information”.
The dawn raid comes just two weeks after the independent news website T24 was shut down, along with its social media accounts. Halk TV is the fifth major broadcaster in Turkey to be placed under state trusteeship amid a crackdown on opposition politicians and jailing of journalists covering a financial scandal implicating senior figures in the ruling party.
Turkey currently ranks in the bottom 10 percent of 180 countries surveyed in the Reporters Without Borders world press freedom index.
Earlier this year, in the run-up to a NATO summit held in Ankara, the authorities blocked websites critical of the military alliance, jailed dozens of people accused of being linked to terrorism, arrested a stand-up comedian on charges of insulting the president, and barred an LGBTQ+ cruise from docking at Turkish ports.
The latest move to stifle criticism and throttle opposition voices with the takeover of a TV channel does not bode well for Turkey’s ambitions to join the European Union. Last week, EU commissioner for enlargement Marta Kos told reporters during a visit to Turkey that “the latest developments affecting media freedom, the rights of the LGBTQI+ people and local democracy are widening the gap with Turkey's objective of joining the EU”.
Kos said the EU’s annual report on enlargement, due for release later this month, would reflect these concerns.
