Until now, Turkey may have been one of the most concentrated media environments in the world, but despite lacking plurality, it had remained relatively diverse.
Now, with the sale of Doğan Media, which includes the flagship Hürriyet newspaper, CNN Turk and Kanal D television stations, a country-wide distribution network and a successful news agency, ownership concentration has become complete.
Transfer of “all shares owned by Doğan Media in the direct and indirect subsidiaries which operate in the field of written and visual media” to Demirören Holding, which already owns two pro-government newspapers, was described as “the death of media pluralism in Turkey” by Reporters Without Borders.
The main opposition The Republican People‘s Party called it “a one-man system establishing a singular voice in the media”.
Proprietor Aydın Doğan, who had been in the sector for a record 4 decades, says he is now more than 80 years old and it is time to move on.
Selling his still profitable media empire, valued at billions of dollars, for a mere 890 million dollars to Erdogan Demirören’s private company, is no ordinary retirement for an octogenarian.
Doğan Media has come under extreme pressure in recent years. They were fined $2.5 billion in 2009 for unpaid taxes, forcing them to sell two of their key portfolio newspapers, Milliyet and Vatan to – who else- Mr Demirören.
Since then, their output has become less critical, often openly pro-government, and nationalist in their stance. A few of their outspoken columnists were unceremoniously sacked, replaced by names who acted as unofficial spokespersons of the government; others silenced by being side-lined. Despite these concessions and increasing self-censorship, hostile rhetoric against their media continued. Aydin Doğan was rumoured to be worried about spending his last years in prison.
Mr. Doğan’s commercial interests, including in highly lucrative energy and real estate, left his media outlets vulnerable to political pressure.
Doğan media group’s sale consolidates the government’s tight control of the Turkish media; not only in newspapers and television, but also in in distribution and newsgathering.
Doğan News Agency provided a more accurate and reliable alternative to the government mouthpiece, Anatolian Agency. The loss of a relatively independent newsgathering operation before an upcoming election is highly significant.
In a country, where almost one out of every three journalists is unable to find work, there will be many more media workers unemployed.
The takeover of the Doğan Media Group by a government ally did not happen in isolation. As it was announced, the government was pushing for a bill in parliament to restrict media’s access to online platforms, by closing a loophole that enabled independent journalists to operate on the Internet.
Under the new legislation, The Supreme Council of Radio and Television RTÜK’s licensing and regulation authority will be broadened to include online content.
The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, who advised the Turkish government against the move, criticised further restrictions as harmful to media freedom and freedom of expression.
This week, Turkey was again named “the biggest backslider in democratisation”, this time by the Bertelsmann Stiftung, a Germany-based think-tank.
On 20 March, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled that the pre-trial detentions of journalists Mehmet Altan and Şahin Alpay had violated their rights protected under the European Convention on Human Rights and reminded Turkey that “democracy thrives on freedom of expression”.
No doubt a similar reminder will be given when the EU leaders will meet President Erdoğan on 26 March in Varna, Bulgaria. But, there is still the EU-Turkey refugee deal to curb migration to consider, and the EU’s leverage is limited.
With so many contradicting signals both from the EU and the United States, there is little reason to be optimistic that these half-hearted reminders and warnings over freedom of speech would be heeded by Turkey’s leaders or cared about by their supporters.
This post is also available in: Turkish
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