How long can Erdoğan suppress the opposition?
Mümtazer Türköne I was outside of the police department in İstanbul when Zaman editor-in-chief Ekrem Dumanlı was taken into custody on Sunday. The protesters were packed together and excited, but acted...
View ArticleMoody’s maintains long-term Bank Asya rating
Credit ratings agency Moody's has confirmed the long-term deposit rating of Bank Asya, while downgrading its standalone baseline credit assessment (BCA), according to a press release from Moody's on...
View ArticleTUSKON: Media raids discourage foreign investors
Foreign investors will not come to a country where the media faces intense pressure, Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON) President Rızanur Meral said, speaking in front of...
View ArticleDec. 14 raid initiated to silence media, prominent figures agree
Following the Dec. 14 operations against Zaman and Hizmet-affiliated officials on Sunday, now being labeled by some as a coup against the free media, Turkish political figures have continued to visit...
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Criticism of police raids continues to trend on social media
Two days after the police raids on Hizmet-affiliated media groups throughout Turkey, criticism of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) continued to trend on Twitter on Tuesday.A Turkish...
View ArticlePeaceful protests against media crackdown continue across Turkey
Hundreds of thousands of people across various provinces of the country continued to voice their objection on Tuesday to a government-orchestrated operation that resulted in the detention of Zaman...
View ArticleRight to defense of detained journalists Dumanlı and Karaca violated
Fikret Duran, the lawyer of Samanyolu Broadcasting Group General Manager Hidayet Karaca, who was taken into custody along with the Zaman newspaper's editor-in-chief in a government-backed crackdown,...
View ArticleEU Council questions Turkey’s respect to media freedom with recent arrests
The European Union Council has said recent police raids and the detention of a number of journalists and media representatives in Turkey call into question the respect for freedom of the media, which...
View ArticleAndrew Duff call for Turkey’s EU accession negotiations to be suspended
The Union of European Federalists (UEF) president Andrew Duff, calls for EU to halt ongoing accession talks with Turkey amidst anti-democratic detainments of journalists. Duff, who has vast experience...
View ArticleMedia detentions spark crisis in beleaguered EU ties
Federica Mogherini, the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, expressed surprise after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan slammed Brussels for remarks critical of recent...
View ArticleWhite House concerned over arrest of Turkish journalists
The White House has expressed concerns over the arrest of Turkish journalists, including Zaman daily Editor-in-Chief Ekrem Dumanlı, and called on Ankara to conduct investigations in a manner consistent...
View ArticleWestern countries voice concern over mass media arrests
A number of Western countries have expressed concern over a recent detention of senior media figures in Turkey. German government spokesman Steffen Seibert has said it is hard to understand how the...
View ArticleThe democratic challenge
Doğu Ergil On Sunday (Dec. 14) the police raided the Zaman daily and Samanyolu TV and detained some of their top executives. They also detained former police chiefs. They were accused of belonging to a...
View ArticleThe crushing of free media
Amanda Paul George Orwell wrote freedom of the press “means the freedom to criticize and oppose.” Unfortunately in Turkey, the space to oppose and criticize is shrinking by the minute. Already in very...
View ArticleWhat to do and what not to do now
Joost Lagendijk The latest wave of media arrests has shown, again, that there are no limits to the campaign of revenge waged by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his lackeys in the government,...
View ArticleHeading for a repressive regime at full speed
Orhan Kemal Cengiz Last Friday night I rang one after the other the editors-in-chief of the Zaman, Today's Zaman and Bugün newspapers -- Ekrem Dumanlı, Bülent Keneş and Erhan Başyurt, respectively....
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Free Media Cannot be silenced
Begüm Burak The detention of the journalists was a “black day for democracy” for Zaman, in contrast to pro-government Star's headline saying “their caves have been entered” Turkey since the inception...
View ArticleBehind the scenes of Tahşiyeciler setup as pretext for clampdown on free press
Bülent Korucu The police conducted an operation against an al-Qaeda-linked organization in 2010. The order for this operation was given by then-Police Chief Oğuz Kağan Köksal, who is currently a deputy...
View ArticleThe witch-hunt reaches Turkey’s media
Mahir Zeynalov“If this is a witch-hunt, yes, we will carry out this witch-hunt,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a few months ago to confront criticism that his government has gone too...
View ArticleUnraveling the facts of the unprecedented crackdown on Turkish media
The largest ever crackdown on Turkish media on Sunday, with the arbitrary detention of the best-selling newspaper's editor-in-chief and a leading national TV network's general director, raised a lot of...
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