The report, titled Press Freedom World Review - June-December 2009, sparked heated debate as the section dedicated to press freedom in Turkey was almost a reproduction of claims given voice by the Doğan Media Group. The report harshly criticized the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), accusing the party of working to undermine press freedom in Turkey. “In Turkey, the government continued its campaign against the influential Doğan Group, which owns, among other media, the top-selling daily Hürriyet newspaper and CNN Turkey, with a massive new tax fine of 1.7 billion euros in September for allegedly evading taxes, charges which experts say are groundless.
In February, the group had already been fined 345 million euros on similar grounds. Tensions with the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, reached a new level in 2008, when the Doğan media began to cover a German criminal investigation into a Turkish Islamic charity linked to the government,” read the report.
Turkish members participating in the WAN 2009 congress released a statement on Tuesday in which they expressed their profound disappointment in the WAN statement concerning Turkey.
“We had expected a more objective and unbiased position by such internationally acclaimed platforms as WAN and the WEF. We find it misleading on the part of WAN and the WEF not to consult Turkish members of WAN, apart from the Doğan Group, while preparing an overview of the status of media freedom in Turkey. It is worrisome that the committee reviewing the status of Turkish media is evidently unaware of what is actually a threat to the freedom of the media in Turkey,” read the statement, signed by Bülent Keneş on the behalf of the Zaman Media Group, Suna Vidinli on the behalf of the Sabah Group and Ergun Babahan on behalf of the Star Group.
In early September, the Doğan Media Group -- Turkey’s largest media company -- was slapped with a fine of TL 4.8 billion, the highest ever imposed on a Turkish company, for tax evasion during a time period covering 2005, 2006 and 2007. Inspectors said the fine was imposed due to their findings that Doğan companies had concealed profits from share transfers among partner companies and had avoided paying corporate tax and value-added tax (KDV) on the revenue from the transfers. Since then, Doğan newspapers have claimed that the fine was “political,” resulting from the holding’s critical approach to the AK Party government. The government, however, denies the claims, saying it is by no means a party to the tax fine controversy.
The statement also expressed the signatory journalists’ expectation that WAN will conduct more thorough research and consult all parties before issuing a statement. “Equating a tax evasion case [Which is under judicial review -- with accused party seeking settlement] with media freedom is an oversimplification of the matter. We hereby request our statement of dissent to be published at the end of the WAN statement concerning Turkey,” added the statement.
The WAN report made its way into Doğan newspapers on Tuesday. Hürriyet claimed that WAN-IFRA indicated at the Hyderabad congress that growing legal actions against independent media and journalists in Turkey has created serious anxiety. The daily alleged that Turkey had been placed in a “warning list” along with China, Russia, Cuba, Pakistan and Yemen. The daily also reported that the tax fine against Doğan Yayın was politically motivated and was aimed at “silencing” Doğan. However, none of those statements were included in the WAN-IFRA report.
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