Turks seizing reporters, silencing media outlets
ISTANBUL — Turkey’s government ordered the closure of dozens of media outlets — including news agencies, television channels, radio stations and newspapers — as part of its widespread crackdown since the failed coup attempt July 15.
The decree from Turkey’s Cabinet of ministers was published late Wednesday in the country’s Official Gazette. A state of emergency enacted after the coup attempt allows Turkey’s executive to issue decrees, which are then sent to parliament for approval.
Earlier Wednesday, prosecutors issued detention orders for nearly 50 journalists and media figures tied to the Zaman newspaper, which was shut down at the request of prosecutors in March. Forty-two journalists and columnists from various media outlets were also ordered detained Monday.
Zaman, which was Turkey’s largest daily, was believed to be tied to Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, a rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The president and his supporters have accused Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States, of orchestrating the coup, in which more than 200 people were killed.
A band of rogue military officers seized combat aircraft, blocked bridges and fired on unarmed protesters demonstrating against the takeover. The government survived the violent coup attempt but has since launched a purge of Turkey’s security institutions and bureaucracy.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch warned this week that the detention or suspension of thousands of bureaucrats, judges, journalists and others is “an unvarnished move for an arbitrary, mass and permanent purge of the civil service.”
On the detention of scores of journalists, Amnesty International’s deputy director for Europe, Gauri van Gulik, said Turkey’s government “is failing to make a distinction between criminal acts and legitimate criticism.”
“Rather than stifling press freedom and intimidating journalists into silence, it is vital that Turkish authorities allow the media to do their work,” she said, “and end this draconian clampdown on freedom of expression.”