Turkey tries to bridle journalists
The president is waging an assault on the free press as he works to reshape the nation, critics say.
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish journalist Erdem Gul was locked up in a highsecurity prison for 92 days, nearly half of those in solitary confinement. But looking back on it, he allowed himself a wry smile, eyes crinkling at the corners. “For the sake of journalism, it was actually quite beneficial,” he says. There was “a lot of time to read and write.”
He mostly read autobiographies. A bit of political science and women’s rights commentary. Books about jailed writers, scientists and activists — like the Marxist revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg. And he read about his jailers: Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, a center- right Islamist movement that has been in power for the last 14 years.
Gul is the Ankara bureau chief of Turkey’s longestrunning newspaper, Cumhuriyet, a left- leaning daily with a circulation of about 50,000. Last May, he and the newspaper’s editor in chief, Can Dundar, published a video that appeared to show that Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization was supplying weapons to Islamist insurgents in Syria.
Their reporting contradicted the government’s official line that it was providing only humanitarian aid to its southern neighbor. The video showed prosecutors in southern Turkey searching a convoy of trucks belonging to Turkey’s intelligence agency.
Beneath a layer of medical supplies, the authorities discovered crates filled with mortar rounds and ammunition. Prosecutors claimed the munitions were bound for Al Qaeda f ighters in northwestern Syria’s Idlib province.
Turkey’s increasingly litigious president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, immediately f iled a complaint with prosecutors, and publicly vowed that there would be a “heavy price” to pay.
In November, the journalists were sent to Istanbul’s Silivri prison, the largest high- security penitentiary in Europe, to await trial on charges of spying and seeking to violently topple the government.
Gul and Dundar stand by their work. “Turkey is interfering directly in Syria and supporting groups opposing” the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Gul said. “The danger of this was evident, and it was our duty to inform the public about what was going on.”
Turkey’s Constitutional Court ordered the release of the two journalists on Feb. 26, ruling that their personal rights had been violated. Erdogan said he would neither “obey” nor “respect” the decision.
Critics say Erdogan is waging a full- scale assault on the free press as he seeks to accelerate his plans for what he describes as the “New Turkey.” “Cumhuriyet is not the only organization facing pressure because of its secular and Western values,” Gul said. “These days, all parts of Turkish society — and our personal liberties — are being put under pressure.”
When Erdogan became prime minister in 2003, he and the AKP initially wooed foreign dignitaries and Turkish liberals, promising democratization and temperate Islamic rule — a model for a region long ruled by autocrats, kings and despots.
And for the party’s f irst two terms in power, it mostly delivered.
But emboldened by a landslide third national election victory in 2011, and seeing an opportunity to realize his broader regional ambitions as “Arab Spring” revolts roiled the Middle East, Erdogan sought to consolidate and expand his powers.
Since then he has grown increasingly intolerant of those who stand in his way, critics say, and the country has lost standing in global press freedom rankings. It now ranks 151st of 180 nations on the World Press Freedom Index, published annually by the nonprofit advocacy group Reporters Without Borders.
Journalists are regularly imprisoned on terrorism charges. Blanket bans are imposed on news seen as damaging to the government. Critical columnists have been f ired in response to government pressure. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have intermittently been blocked. Since he rose to the presidency in 2014, Erdogan has f iled about 1,845 criminal complaints against people for “insulting the president.”
“Pressure on the media is at its worst in our history. Anyone who is not pro- AKP can now lose his job,” said Erkan Saka, a media studies lecturer at Istanbul’s Bilgi University. For Saka, much of the problem is that Erdogan has assumed near- total control of the state, including the judiciary.
The “checks and balances” to rein in Erdogan have eroded, said Saka, and “there is now almost no institution that can control him.”
A prominent AKP figure, Abdurrahim Boynukalin, in September led a mob to the offices of Hurriyet newspaper. They smashed windows and stormed inside. Boynukalin was promoted to the post of deputy minister of youth and sports in December. At the same time, prosecutors are preparing a case — seeking a 23year prison term — against the paper’s owner, Aydin Dogan, on charges that he led an oil- smuggling ring a decade ago. One of Dogan’s most respected and fiercely critical newspapers, Radikal, closed recently, in what was widely interpreted as an attempt to placate Erdogan.
And Erdogan is increasingly setting his sights on foreign journalists. Many have been refused accreditation in the country, others expelled. Last month, a reporter with German state television was denied entry to Turkey and deported.
Meanwhile, the government has established a f lagship English- language television channel called TRT World. Paying top dollar for skilled Western reporters and producers, the station appears to be an attempt to inf luence the narrative about Turkey in the West.
In his office in Cumhuriyet’s Ankara bureau, Gul held a small toy truck that was given to him as a gift after his release. The 49- yearold is the father of two young boys. “The most difficult thing about being in jail was worrying about their psychological well- being,” he said. “I believe prison is harder on the ones who are outside, waiting for you.”
His desk was scattered with newspapers providing a broad sweep of Turkey’s media landscape: the tabloid Posta, the republican Hurriyet and the Islamist Zaman.
On March 5, police raided Zaman’s offices in Istanbul, peppering protesters with tear gas and water cannons. State- appointed trustees seized control, and the paper is now little more than a pro- Erdogan mouthpiece.
Meanwhile, the government has banned media organizations from attending Gul’s trial, citing risks to “national security.”
“I am not pessimistic. I believe we will be cleared of all charges,” Gul said. “If we are found guilty, it is journalism in Turkey that is being put behind bars.”