Silence on Albayrak's resignation 'greatest media crisis in Turkey's recent history'

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Most of Turkey's major media outlets have remained silent about Berat Albayrak's Instagram post announcing his resignation as the Minister of Treasury and Finance at around 7 p.m. yesterday (November 8).

As well as the state-run broadcaster TRT and Anadolu Agency (AA), pro-government TV channels such as CNN Türk, A Haber and NTV and newspapers including Sabah, Hürriyet, Milliyet, Yeni Şafak, Akşam, Posta, Takvim and Yeni Akit skipped the news.

CLICK - Turkey's finance minister announces resignation on Instagram, government, media keep silent

Several newspapers critical of the government, including Cumhuriyet, Sözcü, Karar, Korkusuz, Yeniçağ and Dünya, covered the news on their front pages today. Türkiye was the only pro-government daily that reported the resignation. Habertürk TV also published the news on its website.

İlhan Taşçı, a member of the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), said that only five TV channels reported Albayrak's resignation.

"I'm following 1,780 radios and televisions on the RTÜK Monitoring Center. Apart from five television channels, there are no broadcasters that reported the news that Minister of Treasury and Finance Berat Albayrak resigned. This is the picture that journalism is finished; it's a shame!" he wrote on Twitter.

The government has yet to make a statement about Albayrak's resignation as well.

"A characteristic of tyrannical regimes"

The Basın-İş press workers' union, which is affiliated with the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK), released a written statement on the media coverage of Albayrak's resignation.

Restrictions on the public's right to information is a characteristic of tyrannical regimes, said the union.

"Apart from independent TV broadcasters and websites, which are being intimidated with various penalties, no 'mainstream' media outlet covered [the statement]," noted the union.

"Moreover, the latest situation of the country's economy was being discussed on an economic channel. Minister Albayrak's name wasn't even mentioned during the program.

"The media outlets that have been made an apparatus of the palace couldn't even report the news of the resignation, which the Minister shared on his own account.

"The despair of the 'official media,' which couldn't even say, 'Minister Albayrak announced on his Instagram account that he has resigned. The news of resignation has not yet been confirmed by official authorities,' was declaring the media order built by the Palace Regime to everyone. It was clear that the controversy was still going on at the palace."

"A betrayal of the public's right to information"

Also releasing a written statement, the Contemporary Journalists' Association (ÇGD) said that yesterday's events were one of the heaviest media crises in Turkey's recent history.

Recalling the basic principles of journalism, the association said that the media "betrayed the public's right to information" by not reporting the events.

While journalists worked to learn what happened behind the scenes, their executives prevented the disclosure of such information, it added.

"It was tragic"

Media ombudsperson Faruk Bildirici said in a tweet that the crisis was growing as the media continued to ignore the resignation.

"The [Presidency's] Communications Directorate, which has a budget of hundreds of millions of lira, can't communicate! Probably the chain of command is not working. It was tragic, it has become funny!" (HA/AS/VK)