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Columnists Say Operation Targeting İpek Media Aims To Intimidate

02.09.2015 18:59

A number of columnists who on Wednesday devoted their columns to comment on Tuesday's government-backed operation against the İpek Media Group described the operation as an effort at intimidation by the government meant for independent journalists while calling such an operation unacceptable in a democracy.

A number of columnists who on Wednesday devoted their columns to comment on Tuesday's government-backed operation against the İpek Media Group described the operation as an effort at intimidation by the government meant for independent journalists while calling such an operation unacceptable in a democracy.

The media group, which is part of Koza İpek Holding, was raided by police a few days after Twitter whistleblower Fuat Avni said the government was planning to conduct operations against media outlets critical of the government and by extension the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in an attempt to silence them before the Nov. 1 snap election.

The Hürriyet daily's veteran columnist Taha Akyol wrote such an operation is "unthinkable" in a state of law, while another writer for the daily, Mehmet Y. Yılmaz, said the operation targeting the İpek Media Group is an act of revenge by the government for the Dec. 17-25, 2013 graft operation, in which senior government members were implicated.

Yılmaz said both democracy and freedom of the press are once again in tatters in Turkey.

After the exposure of the Dec. 17-25 graft scandal, the AK Party government began to stifle the activity of any institution or media outlet that carried out critical coverage of its policies. The new policy included a major reshuffle in the state bureaucracy and increased control over the judiciary as well as pressure on the media.

"If only MASAK [the Finance Ministry's Financial Crimes Investigation Board] had taken a look at the dossier of Reza Zarrab, who is accused of smuggling gold and money in addition to fictitious exports, instead of taking action against the İpek Media Group. It cannot do this because those dossiers are dangerous. If you touch them, your hand will be burnt. The best thing is to act on orders from Ak Saray [a reference to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his presidential palace]! You will crack down on independent media and help form a media with no critical voices," wrote journalist Nazlı Ilıcak in her column for the Bugün daily on Wednesday. Bugün belongs to the İpek Media Group.

Iranian businessman Zarrab, whose name is mentioned in Ilıcak's column, was the prime suspect in the Dec. 17 probe. He was accused of offering bribes to several ministers worth tens of millions of dollars in exchange for facilitating the gold trade he was conducting to circumvent international sanctions on Iran. He, like the other suspects in the graft investigation, was not prosecuted because the charges against him were dropped by a prosecutor newly assigned to the investigation.

Bugün columnist Orhan Kemal Cengiz, who is also a lawyer, talked about charges directed at the Koza and İpek groups, saying that they stand accused of transferring huge amounts of money from their accounts in Turkey to accounts abroad.

"I have not heard of such a crime so far. … Let me also say this: If a group which has been threatened by the pro-government media for a long time with the seizure of their assets had transferred all of its money, not just some of it, abroad, I would not be surprised about it and I would not condemn it," Cengiz wrote.

Another Bugün columnist, Gökhan Bacık said that at a time when there are media bosses who fire critical journalists because they want to win state tenders, the raid on the İpek Media Group shows the group is on the right side and it does not make any concessions from press freedom.

According to Meydan columnist Cafer Solgun, the raid on the İpek Media Group is an attempt at intimidation for the entire Turkish media and Turkey to force them to obey the government. He said this operation is a blow to democracy, freedom of expression and thought, and the freedom of the press, and that it shows what a difficult situation the government is in.

Another Meydan columnist, Atilla Taş wrote in his column on Wednesday that what the AK Party and Erdoğan want is to silence all critical voices; yet he vowed that no matter what steps they take against their group, they will maintain their critical stance and not remain silent.

A columnist from the Millet daily, which is also owned by the İpek Media Group, Murat Aksoy, said the operation targeting the group shows the growing authoritarianism in Turkey and the efforts by Erdoğan to consolidate his one-man rule.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)



 
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