SETA Report Denounced by Germany: Freedom of Thought and Press Trampled Upon

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Monika Grütters, Germany's Minister of State for Culture and the Media, has denounced the "International Media Outlets' Extensions in Turkey" report of the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA).

CLICK - Journalism Organizations Denounce SETA Report

As published on the website of the Federal Government of Germany, Grütters has indicated that the report "has massively jeopardized the independence of journalistic work and revealed a sense of democracy, where freedom of thought and press are trampled upon."

'It jeopardizes the independence of journalism'

Minister Grütters has stated the following about the issue:

"I firmly reject the allegations of unilateral reporting raised against Deutsche Welle (DW) in the 'study' entitled 'International Media Outlets' Extensions in Turkey' released by the SETA Foundation of Turkey.

"Deutsche Welle advocates democratic values and fundamental human rights worldwide with objective and independent quality journalism.

"Freedom of expression and press are indispensable prerequisites for any democracy. Independent reporting must be uncomfortable, especially with regard to the state institutions.

"When content-related arguments turn into personal attacks by publishing CVs, apparent ideological views and private posts by journalists from DW, Voice of America, BBC and Euronews, the independence of journalistic work is massively jeopardized and a sense of democracy is revealed, where the freedom of thought and press are trampled upon.

"Together with my Minister of Culture colleagues in the European Union (EU), I am committed to protecting journalists and defending the freedom of press and expression, also with a view to the German EU Presidency."

What happened?

On July 6, the SETA Foundation published a report entitled "International Media Outlets' Extensions in Turkey". The report listed the professional backgrounds and social media posts of journalists working at BBC Türkçe, Deutsche Welle Türkçe, the Voice of America, Sputnik Turkey, Euronews Turkey, Independent Turkey and China Radio International (CRI) Turkey. The report accused these organizations of "carrying out a perception work."

Citing the social media posts and retweets of the journalists, the SETA also referred to the newspapers and news websites BirGün, T24, bianet, Evrensel, Cumhuriyet, Diken, DW Türkçe and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) as "the media that come to the fore with their anti-government news."

In response to this report, which sparked outrage on social media especially among journalists, the Journalists' Union of Turkey (TGS) and Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA) filed a criminal complaint.

Journalism organizations also held a press conference on July 9 and stated, "If anything happens to a single colleague of ours, the SETA is to blame." 21 international organizations signed a statement condemning the report and said, "Such a witch-hunt is especially dangerous in the tension and political polarization currently characterizing Turkish society." (RT/EMK/SD)