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The Doğan media group has slammed the pro-government daily Yeni Şafak and TV broadcaster AHaber for their reports claiming the media group is hand-in-hand with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in an “evil alliance” against the Turkish government, saying that a government that believes in democracy should keep its distance from such media outlets.
In a statement published on the front page of the Hürriyet daily on Wednesday, the media group said some pro-government dailies and TV stations have recently increased the number of reports that target the Doğan group with accusations and lies.
In a report titled “Everyone has become pro-ISIL” on Monday, Yeni Şafak alleged that after the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant's (ISIL) attack on the Syrian border town of Kobani last September, the opposition, the “parallel structure” and the Doğan media group collaborated to “depict Turkey as a country that supports terrorism.” The daily claimed that Doğan media outlets, which it said support the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and the PKK to bring down the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government, used the Cumhuriyet daily as a tool to publish photos and footage of arms that were transferred to Syria in trucks operated by the National Intelligence Organization (MİT). AHaber reportedly continued to voice Yeni Şafak's claims targeting the media group.
Calling the allegations “extremely ugly and crossing the line,” the statement -- written by the media group's public relations deputy director Ahter Kutadgu -- underlined that the “new media” outlets that have come to the fore in recent years lack the seriousness, knowledge, investigative skills, intelligence and conscience that journalism requires. Stressing that the pro-government media considers even a small criticism of government as “traitorous,” the Doğan media group said these media outlets resort to “every kind of slander” in the name of protecting or ingratiating itself with the government.
“No government improves its reputation with [the support of] media that operate on such a basis. It is unable to make the public adopt the issues that it supports. It is viewed as ‘suspect' even on matters on which it is right… A government that believes in democracy, listens to the voice of its conscience and hasn't broken ties with basic ethical principles should keep its distance from such media,” the statement said.
Denying all the allegations by the pro-government daily and TV station, the Doğan group stated that it will assert its legal rights. The media group said that it had written to the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) over AHaber's report and had filed a complaint against both the daily and the TV station.
(Cihan/Today's Zaman)
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