The biggest media mogul of Turkey

Bülent Keneş
Today's Zaman, 26 January 2014

The Zaman newspaper published an interesting interview on Sunday. Zeki Sözer, who was one of the first producers of the state-owned broadcaster Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) and is now nearly 80 years old, talked about his interesting experiences and observations from his book "Halkın Sesinden İktidarın Borazanına" (From the voice of the public to the mouthpiece of the ruling party).
               
To understand the deplorable state of Turkish journalism in recent months, we need to take heed of the remarks of Sözer, who was working for TRT during the repressive military coup and intervention periods.
Let's listen to what Sözer says: "The current ruling party not only controls TRT, whose budget is approved by Parliament, but has also extended its control and clout to private radio stations and TV channels and newspapers. Today, media outlets feel obliged to be in the service of the ruling party. This obligation is also mixed with fear and certain self-interests. Everyone knows that when a media outlet publishes stories criticizing the government, it immediately finds itself subjected to the government's pressures… There are rumors that the government is also working to draft regulations for increased censorship of the Internet. They must abandon this prohibitionist mentality. They impose bans on news stories about the police operations into corruption claims. These practices are modeled after countries ruled by dictators. The same ban is currently in force in China… The Turkish media has seen military coups and bad days but things were never so bad."
I didn't experience directly the conventional coups of May 27, 1960, March 12, 1971 or Sept. 12, 1980 or the post-coup interim regimes, so I don't have deep knowledge of the hardships journalists went through during these periods. The accounts about these repressive periods are not heartwarming to say the least. The post-modern coup of Feb. 28, 1997 is the only experience I have had with how media outlets are controlled by subversive coups. When I compare that repressive shadowy process with today's developments, I can hardly say that what we are experiencing today is less evil than what happened in that era.
For instance, I have long stopped expecting TRT and the Anadolu news agency (AA) to stick to principles of objective journalism although they are autonomous public institutions established to pursue objective journalism. Just as the title of Sözer's book implies, the TRT and the AA have transformed from the "voice of the public" into the "mouthpiece of the ruling party" in recent years with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) at the helm of the country. These public institutions, financed by taxes collected from the general public, have long been reshaped as the main black propaganda tools of the ruling party. For instance, TRT's TV channels have silenced all programs exhibiting any divergent attitudes. The journalists and producers who take great pains to perform their jobs in compliance with the universal standards of journalism have been purged. Currently, TRT and the AA have lost their influence and reliability as they function as a blind mouthpiece for the AKP.
Just as Egyptian TV channels would do during the time of Hosni Mubarak, all TV channels of the TRT broadcast live every activity or speech by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Years have passed since the AA has remembered that it is a state-owned agency that must sit on principles of objective broadcasting. The AA's managers are obsessed with ideological, subjective, biased and propaganda-like partisan editorial policies and solely invest in earning the favor of Prime Minister Erdoğan and the small oligarchic group close to him. Obviously, they are successful in their efforts.
We wouldn't be concerned if this morbid state had only infected state-owned media outlets. But a significant proportion of Turkish media outlets have increasingly come under the control of the government, with many private TV channels and newspapers being guided almost completely by the prime minister or the small oligarchic groups close to him. For instance, it has become a strict habit for at least 15 national and numerous regional or local TV channels to feature live coverage of the prime minister's daily lengthy speeches in which he says nothing new. Thus, private TV channels feel obliged to interrupt their important programs in order to broadcast live the prime minister's remarks which are mostly parroted verbatim and which have mostly been memorized by the general public. The next day, these remarks are covered as headline stories by at least seven national papers with almost the same exact content.
Of course, some TV channels and newspapers are doing this in a voluntary manner as the managers of these channels and papers know very well that, no matter who their bosses are, Erdoğan is their actual boss who ensures that they are extremely well-paid. The evidence exposed during the recent graft investigation has led to the public partially learning this special information. The information has revealed that the clientelism structure of some media outlets has been shaped directly by the prime minister or by circles close to him using mafia-like arrangements. For instance, thanks to this process, people learned that during the process of the changing of hands of the Sabah media group, some businessmen who had become richer thanks to public tenders were asked to make contributions of $100 million without any records.
On the other hand, as seen in the case of Akşam media group, dissident media outlets are confiscated using different methods. Pro-government businessmen are then allowed to acquire these media assets seized by the government without any transparent, competitive tenders. Former politicians who are loyal to Prime Minister Erdoğan but who lack journalism experience were appointed as the managers of these media outlets.
Those media outlets who continue to boldly publish dissident opinions despite the pressure are intimidated by inspectors sent by the government. These inspectors punish these institutions by levying high fines for made-up tax offenses. In addition, as seen in the case of the İpek Group, the dissident media bosses are also intimidated by hurling threats at them about their operations in other areas. In addition to these pressures, the government also seeks ways to silence digital avenues and social media channels as they have emerged as an effective media tool for raising objections to the ruling party's anti-democratic, unlawful and arbitrary activities and voicing social dissension. The government aims to ban completely or partially these venues using censorship regulations, examples of which can be found only in China, North Korea and Iran.
Looking at how Turkey has recently been performing regarding freedom of the press and media, we can say that pressures on the media have climbed unprecedented rates, not even seen in the Iraq of Saddam Hussein, the Syria of Bashar al-Assad or the Egypt of Hosni Mubarak. The Turkish government's efforts to recast the media scene as a univocal monolith have long surpassed these countries infamous for similar efforts.
At the end of the day, the prime minister controls numerous pro-government and partisan media outlets either directly or through indirect repressive methods and has emerged as Turkey's biggest media mogul. The prime minister's every speech is broadcast live either voluntarily or reluctantly by at least 17 national TV channels and he enjoys more power and authorities than a media boss on the management of at least half of these channels.
Moreover, it is the prime minister who directly decides who should work as editors in at least seven national newspapers. People are then supposed to believe in these media outlets which have become the most functional component of this mafia system. It is sad to observe that this media order has been successful in persuading some segments of society.

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