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Doğan Group media outlets Posta newspaper and Hürriyet newspaper have each fired a journalist, who declared their opinion that they would vote against presidential system in the constitutional amendment referendum.
Kanal D morning news reporter İrfan Değirmenci was sacked for having tweeted that he would vote “no” in the referendum.
In a statement, Kanal D emphasizing Doğan Group’s principle of “impartiality” said “He openyl became a party to a publicly disputed matter. For this reason, we cancelled the labor contract with him”.
On a CNN Türk live program on January 22, 2017, Posta columnist Hakan Çelenk briefly said:
“I am an ill-intended president. Defend the system against me, I will assume the office, I will be involved in corruption. If anyone attempts to remove from my post, I will dissolve the parliament if I am ill-intended. Then I will have the deputies be elected and call a general election”.
Çelenk was sacked after these statements.
Firing of Değirmenci sparked reactions on social media.
Stressing Hürriyet newspaper columnist Fatih Çekirge’s article in which he said “As a person who has been advocating the presidential system for years, I say ‘yes’”, the social media users asked why the “impartiality” principle doesn’t apply to Çekirge. (NV/EKN/TK)