We are in the last two weeks of the campaign for the upcoming parliamentary elections in Turkey and pressure on media outlets and on individual journalists has already reached unprecedented levels.<\/p>\n
In addition to increasingly draconian and highly-politicized regulatory and legal measures, the governing party politicians are now speaking directly to media bosses from their election rallies.<\/p>\n
As usual, the leading challenger of the media\u2019s independence is the supposedly-impartial president.\u00a0 Interpreting daily Hurriyet\u2019s headline about the death penalty handed down to the disposed president of Egypt as a veiled threat to his own presidency with a mandate gained with the same percentage, President Erdogan blasted the media group and its proprietor Aydin Dogan.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu<\/a> has raised the stakes further, looking for a sinister plot from all corners of the country and beyond. He has claimed<\/a> the whole of the international media has been mobilised against his government.<\/p>\n Nobody could have upped the ante higher than the President\u2019s infamous chief advisor Yigit Bulut. Speaking on a live programme shown on the public broadcaster, Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT), Mr. Bulut said:<\/p>\n \u201cNobody can touch the president of this country before I am killed.I have two licensed pistols and I have collected hundreds of bullets over the years thanks to my legal rights. Until I die, until I am shot or hanged, nobody can touch the elected president of this country\u201d.<\/p>\n In its response to the President, Dogan Media Group\u2019s flagship newspaper Hurriyet asked<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cMr. President, What do you want from us? Why do you attack us with obvious injustices, obvious distortions, and obvious attempts to guess our intentions by reading selectively? Why do you target us?\u201d<\/p>\n In recent days, defamation lawsuits against the press have increased. According to Taraf<\/a> newspaper, any critical reference to Presidential Palace and its workings seem to trigger a lawsuit from Mr Erdogan\u2019s lawyers.\u00a0 Widely accepted principles for election coverage such as impartiality, objectivity and accuracy do not seem to concern courts or regulators. Media outlets associated with the governing party AKP seem to have a free hand in their biased reporting.<\/p>\n If verbal intimidation and personally initiated prosecutions are not seen to be effective enough, there are other ways to silence the media.<\/p>\n