Twenty people fired from pro-AKP think tank framing journalists

President Erdoğan giving a speech at a SETA meeting. (Photo: AA/File)

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Several people have been fired or resigned from the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA), its employees revealed on Twitter.

Seven coordinators of the think tank announced their resignation yesterday (June 23), after the firings of 20 employees.

While the SETA did not make a statement on the issue, it deleted the coordinators' profile pages from its website.

The SETA drew international criticism over its July 2019 report titled "Extensions of Foreign Media Outlets in Turkey," which included background information and social media interactions of journalists working for Turkish services of BBC, DW, Voice of America and Sputnik.

Claiming that these outlets were carrying out "perception management work," SETA was accused of "framing journalists" by journalism organizations.

Prosecutors had refused to prosecute the case, stating that the report did not violate freedom of expression.

CLICK - Twenty-one international organizations condemn SETA report

CLICK - Journalism Organizations Denounce SETA

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." (HA/VK)