IPI Accuses Prime Minister of Intimidating Media

Ferai Tınç, Hürriyet newspaper journalist and president of the International Press Institute’s (IPI) Turkish Committee, has interpreted recent events concerning journalists and newspapers as “no coincidence”. She spoke to bianet about several events:

• Mehmet Emin Karamehmet, the head of the Çukurova Group (which owns Show TV, Lig TV, Sky Turk, Akşam and Güneş newspapers and Alem FM radio station) was bugged by court order
• The Doğan group has been heavily fined after selling 25 percent of its shares to the German Axel Springer Group in 2006.The Doğan group owns, among others Hürriyet, Milliyet, Radikal, Posta, Fanatik, Referans and Turkish Daily News newspapers, as well as CNN Türk, Kanal D and Star TV channels. The Ministry of Finance is claiming that irregularities accompanied the sale and has charged the Doğan Group a tax penalty totalling 826 million 300,000 TL (around 385 million Euros). The Doğan Group has denied any irregularities and has announced that it will go to court.
• The Capital Markets Board (SPK) is investigating the partnership structure of the Cumhuriyet newspaper.

"Economy as weapon of intimidation"

According to Tınç, “The Prime Minister is making it obvious that he does not like a free press. He is using the economy as a weapon of intimidation.”

She said that previous governments had used similar means, but against business people rather than the media. She also pointed to the many court cases Prime Minister Erdoğan has opened against journalists, as well as many statements he has made against the press.

Prime Minister Erdoğan has accused the Doğan Group of supporting the main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), and has called on members of his own party, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) to boycott the media institutions owned by the group. In addition, the group has been heavily fined.

The Doğan group has announced that the sales procedure of shares to the Axel Springer group began in November 2006 but ended on 2 January 2007, and that the relevant taxes were thus payed in 2007. It insists that no irregularities took place.

Denial by PM, court case by Ministry

Prime Minister Erdoğan referred to the accusation of intimidation at a party rally in Aksaray, saying: “A state institution carries out a legal procedure, and immediately they start to blame the government. Whatever happens to you, you think it comes from the government, from the AKP…”

In a statement the Ministry of Finance said that tax evasion had taken place, and that the Ministry and its personnel would go to court to file a complaint against the Doğan Group for their statement which included hostility and insult. (EÖ/AG)