Freedom of the press

It is obvious that the Doğan group, which has successfully used its media outlets to engage in wars of attrition against targeted groups and figures and which has obtained conclusive results in the past, has lost the initiative and control of the process to Prime Minister Erdoğan, whom they are targeting. This must be a first for the Doğan group.

If we are to summarize the debate without much detail, the Doğan group's media organizations accuse Erdoğan and his colleagues of corruption, while Erdoğan sees all these news reports as part of a campaign of revenge and blackmail attempting to put pressure on the government. Erdoğan maintains that this blackmail campaign is being waged in order to coerce the government into acceding to the Doğan group's commercial expectations in various sectors. Implying that Aydın Doğan and his group forced or made deals with previous governments to create unfair conditions of competition and to obtain monumental power, Erdoğan claims that Doğan is now trying to do the same with his government. He even goes further to list the demands made by Aydın Doğan of the government and public authorities that have gone unanswered.

These demands of Doğan, which the prime minister has somehow been unwilling to make public until now, not only bring to the agenda those problems stemming from Turkey's failure to formulate norms and standards regarding media ownership and business ties, but also highlight the problems caused by the extreme concentration of power in the media.

The Doğan group and Doğan himself, on the other hand, deny Erdoğan's accusations that they have been demanding concessions or benefits from the government and attribute the prime minister's harsh reaction to the group to his uneasiness about their news stories and their allegations of corruption. They argue that by using such strong language Erdoğan is seeking to suppress and silence the Doğan group's media organizations, which, they say, is a threat to freedom of the press. They further argue that Erdoğan has adopted a dictatorial style of administration.

Now, that being said, can we tell which of these claims are true? It is too early to make an assertion about this. However, if we remember what happened in the past in broad daylight and in the public eye, we can safely ague that it is the Doğan group that has the least right to talk about fundamental rights and freedoms, especially freedom of the press. This is because it is this very Doğan group that barely accepts pluralism in Turkey, does not allow any rival media organization to be established and attacks such attempts at all costs.

Is there any media group or conservative/democratic political or social movement that has not been attacked by the Doğan group? Let us remember some of their misdemeanors in this respect. Wasn't it this group that blocked the distribution of the Akşam and Güneş newspapers, published by the Ilıcak family? Wasn't it this group that similarly imposed obstacles to distribution before the Uzan group's newly established media organizations? Wasn't it this group that launched attacks to wear down the Sabah group when it was owned by Dinç Bilgin and Turgay Çiner? Wasn't it this group that continued their attacks toward the Sabah group, currently owned by Ahmet Çalık? Can this truly be called respect for freedom of the press?

Isn't it this group that levels false and misleading accusations and engages in libel against all the media organizations they perceive as rivals or conducts campaigns against such outlets? Isn't it this group that insistently claims that the circulation figures for Turkey's top-circulating daily, Zaman, are not true, despite the fact that Zaman is inspected by the international independent auditing company BPA and also despite the fact that numerous corrections were sent to them? Isn't it this group that attempts to cause the ruin of such dailies as Yeni Şafak and Anadolu'da Vakit, which can be seen as evidence of pluralism in Turkey and which will never be rivals to them? Is this the sort of freedom of the press that they today defend with raised voices?

Denigrating all political views and ideas other than their own and libeling other media groups as religious media, reactionary media, pro-government media or submissive media should be a sign of how the Doğan group's media organizations understand the freedoms of press and thought.

If you ask them, they will claim to be the only media group that opposes the government. Everyone is aware of the sad truth that they only oppose the legitimate governments that are duly elected, but they fail to raise their voice against the pro-establishment sources of power, including the military and the high bureaucracy, which relentlessly act as if they were the true government. This group's media organizations have always acted as the volunteer media for all kinds of psychological warfare and anti-democratic interventions launched by these sources of power. Is there any other group that successfully and boldly conducts a public relations campaign for every intervention by the military into politics? Isn't it the Doğan group that humiliates the elected representatives of the people while tirelessly glorifying the appointed ones? Have you ever seen the Doğan group's media organizations criticize a military coup or memorandum? How about conspiracies against democracy and the elected government, Ergenekon, Atabey or other deep-state gangs? Have you ever seen them oppose such acts or discourse?

Of course you haven't seen them do this. But I think you should not have forgotten that it was this media group that most actively supported the postmodern military coup of Feb 28 against the legitimate government and civil society groups in 1997, and which lent the greatest support to all the anti-democratic activities of 2007 and 2008. They say they are the only opposition media; tell it to the marines.