The pro-government media — or more correctly the “government media,” as it has become apparent that they have been bought by businessmen under orders from the prime minister — has manufactured and published lies about the Hizmet movement, which has a four-decade proud history in Turkey, in an attempt to create the perception that it is a criminal organization.
A news article in Daily Sabah, the new, English-language member of the government’s media lineup, claimed on Monday that the police are ratcheting up measures to patch holes in their security network in order to prevent leaks by Gülenists, a derogatory term used to describe the Hizmet movement.
Starting mid-February, the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) has been severely penalizing a number of news TV channels known for their anti-government broadcasts. Those channels, which include Samanyolu Haber TV and Bugün TV, were mostly penalized on the grounds that their programs were biased. The channels have been broadcasting reports about claims of corruption and bribery that have implicated some government members.
On Thursday night Samanyolu Haber TV news channel was the latest to face a cyber attack, as readers have at times also recently been unable to access the websites of the dailies Zaman, Today’s Zaman and Taraf, as well as the Cihan news agency, particularly since the night of the local elections on March 30.
Zaman correspondent Tuğba Mezararkalı, who was told by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to change her job and leave the Zaman daily during a press conference held on Friday, has said Erdoğan is clearly intervening in freedom of the press, stating she did not begin her job in Zaman, where she has been working for four years, on the prime minister’s orders and would not leave her job on his orders as well.
Fatih Karaca, head of the media unit of Ipek group of companies, said Thursday Turkey’s radio and television watchdog revoked the license of KanalTurk television, citing a 2010 court decision. He maintained that the decision against the station — which is linked to a movement led by U.S.-based moderate Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen — was “politically-motivated.”
Mahçupyan’s analysis of the Hizmet movement’s perspective on the Kurdish issue is wrong. When the settlement process was launched, the Hizmet movement announced its full support for the solution, with Gülen saying, “Peace is in itself goodness, and peace brings happiness.” It advocated non-violent social actors competing with each other freely and under democratic conditions. It openly declared that the right to education in one’s mother tongue is one of the fundamental human rights.
Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) has suspended 20 TV shows of the Samanyolu Haber TV news channel, its Editor in Chief Metin Yıkar announced via his Twitter account on Saturday. The RTÜK penalty came days after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowed to finish off the Hizmet Movement and its affiliates, including the Samanyolu Haber TV.
The Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) has issued a warning over news program “Derin Bakış” (Deep Glance), which is broadcast on Samanyolu News TV, on the grounds that the program is “biased,” only a week after it penalized Bugün TV for the same reason.
The High Committee of the Press Council in Turkey, following an appeal by the lawyer of Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, has examined certain articles from the Sabah and Takvim dailies and condemned them for violating its basic principles of journalism.