As the government has stepped up its crackdown on its critics by raiding news outlets and arresting foreign journalists, The Republican People\u2019s Party (CHP) leader Kemal K\u0131l\u0131\u00e7daro\u011flu voiced a sentiment that has become all too common these days.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t disgrace Turkey in the eyes of the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Turkey\u2019s reputation is already blemished.<\/p>\n
Intimidating acts against the media and anyone daring to criticise the AKP rule have become so widespread that barely a day goes by without Turkey being invited to respect the rule of the law and basic freedoms.<\/p>\n
Now, its image as an emerging economic power is beginning to fade. \u00a0Speaking to the Reuters News Agency, Jonathan Friedman, a Turkey analyst at London-based risk consultancy Stroz Friedberg, was quoted<\/a> as saying that Ankara\u2019s domestic turmoil had taken a severe toll on its international standing.<\/p>\n “Turkey’s soft power has declined so rapidly over the last two years. Turkey doesn’t have the same credibility on the G20 stage as it would have had a couple of years back,” he said.<\/p>\n The day after two British journalists and their interpreter working for VICE News were arrested in south-eastern Turkey and charged with aiding a terrorist organization, and on the day the Turkish police raided the offices of a conglomerate, Koza \u0130pek and its media outlets, criticism again poured down on Turkey.<\/p>\n The Council of Europe\u2019s Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Mui\u017enieks expressed concern and asked the Turkish authorities \u201cto take resolute steps to ensure greater freedom of the media.\u201d<\/p>\n US State Department Spokesman Mark Toner, \u201cas Turkey’s friend and NATO ally\u201d, urged Turkish authorities to \u201censure their actions uphold universal democratic values, including due process, freedom of expression as well as access to media and information”.<\/p>\n Dutch politician and Member of the European Parliament, Marietje Schaake submitted 3 written questions to the European Commission concerning press freedom in Turkey. She wanted to know how the role of foreign and Turkish media will be safeguarded during the coming elections and what consequences the Commission attached to the crackdown on press freedom specifically, and on fundamental freedoms generally, in Turkey.<\/p>\n In Britain, PEN International, English PEN and Index on Censorship sent a letter to Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond urging him to speak out publicly against the arrests of the three foreign journalists on what they called to be \u201cbaseless charges\u201d.<\/p>\n William Horsley, Media Freedom Representative and Vice-President of the Association of European Journalists (AEJ<\/a>) described the police raids on critical media outlets in Turkey as \u201can attempt by those in high political authority to misuse the powers of the state for their own advantage only weeks before a general election\u201d and he said \u201cthese abuses, and all attempts to silence media outlets by official threats and the misuse of anti-terrorism or other laws, must stop immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n