Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s crackdown on press freedom is now more than a decade old. The story is well-known: Upon taking office, he surreptitiously replaced all the technocrats at Turkey’s banking board with political hacks, all of whom had an Islamic banking background. He then used this board and others to levy exorbitant and arbitrary tax liens sometimes amounting to billions of dollars against his political enemies and any newspaper which reported critically about him.
While media watchdogs have chronicled Erdoğan’s reign of terror against journalists, famously labeling Turkey the “world’s biggest prison for journalists,” just as important to Erdoğan’s success has been his ability to co-opt journalists. Meeting with veteran Turkish journalists in Istanbul this past summer, most estimated that only five percent of Turkish journalists at most are professional; some within the newer generation of journalists have become multimillionaires simply because they parrot Erdoğan’s line and paint flattering portraits of his sublime wisdom.
Many of the authentic journalists who remain work at the Turkish daily Hürriyet. Certainly, that paper still self-censors and it is also home to some columnists who frequently toe the government line, but it still is willing to push the envelope in a way so many other Turkish outlets will not. One recent bold case was that of reporter Zeynep Gürcanlı who, after Erdoğan’s regime decreed no one should report on the massive corruption scandal involving former ministers and Erdoğan associates, compiled this list of ten topics on which the government has banned Turkish journalists from reporting. Her list is well worth reading.
Hürriyet soon followed suit with this declaration decrying the bans. Several newspapers subsequently issued statements that they would ignore the ban, a bold move which can result in fines, prison, or worse.
Interestingly, one newspaper that has apparently decided to go along with Erdoğan’s ban is Sabah. This does not surprise: That newspaper, once mildly critical of Erdoğan, was seized by the Turkish government and transferred to Erdoğan’s son-in-law. What makes Sabah’s refusal more meaningful, however, is that when President Obama hosted Erdoğan at the White House last year, Obama chose Sabah of all newspapers in order to laud Erdoğan’s Turkey. Its sycophantic behavior to Erdoğan was already well known, as was Hürriyet’s willingness to resist. To be fair to Obama, it is doubtful he personally knew about Sabah’s baggage. But certainly the Turkey desk at the National Security Council did, as would all the Turkey hands at the State Department, at the American Embassy in Ankara, and the American consulate in Istanbul. That the United States has so consistently turned a blind eye to the contraction of rights and freedoms in Turkey is a poor reflection of a litany of U.S. ambassadors in Turkey, with the clear exception of Eric Edelman, who regularly stood up and spoke out in favor of democracy and liberty and was not willing to paper over or rationalize Erdoğan’s abuse of power.
Mistakes happen, but they can be corrected. Once upon the time the White House valued moral clarity. How telling it is that as some Turkish journalists risk life and limb to expose the truth, Obama and so many handling Turkey affairs in the State Department remain as silent publicly on the subjects Turkey bans as Erdoğan’s in-pocket, bought-and-paid-for journalists.
