After a corruption case whose details given below, DMG papers and CHP started a new wave of attack against AKP and its leadership. As usual Milliyet leads the accusations. As far as I remember PM Tayyip Erdoğan uttered the name of "Aydın Doğan" for the first time and he accused him of not having moral standards etc. So far Mr. Erdoğan was using an abstract term, ‘media’ to attack. Now he narrowed down that to DMG. Doğan Media Group has been explicitly targeting for a few years and now AKP seems to have decided to fight back.
DMG has been continously criticised in media criticism circles and in Communication schools. The group papers are unbelievably bold against whom they believe to be targets. This might be AKP, or Kurds/DTP or another media group or EU leaders.Their newsmaking sometimes reaches the boundaries of libeling. But they know they will remain impuned. There is virtually not a single institution that can have power over this group. Because Press Council and many other similar institutions are already occupied by DMG’s senior journalists.
But of course, starting with tomorrow, PM’s latest words will be interpreted as a political intervention to Media. This abstraction will not help for the ordinary people. Criticisers will be satisfied with this cliche interpretation but this will not change the fact that journalists are one of least trusted groups in society. As long as there are not any substantive occupational ombudsman like institutions, the press cannot be assumed to be innocent.
Turkish press, particularly DMG, acts like a political actor and this inevitably will involve them in political struggles. They paved the way, and they will have to meet the consequences. I believe DMG, despite all its bitching, will now suffer from the political wrath of AKP and I don’t read this as the suffocation of journalism by the political power. I read it as a clash of two political parties… Turkish press will survive maybe with better representatives…
Germans accuse Turkish gov’t of piling pressure on fraud case
German prosecutors have claimed the Turkish government pressured for the release of suspects in the Deniz Feneri case, considered the biggest charity corruption case in Germany’s history, Milliyet daily reported on Friday."
Baykal blames PM for involvement in Lighthouse corruption – Turkish Daily News Sep 06, 2008
Turkey National team players thank Armenian fans after World Cup group 5 qualifying soccer match against Armenia in Yerevan, Armenia, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2008. Turkey won the match 2-0.
(AP Photo/Misha Japaridze)
The first half was uneventful. I have admit: I stopped watching and played cards instead….
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So interesting to read about the media group and about journalists as a scoial group. I almost imagine you could portray this in traditional anthropological kinship diagrams to illustrate relationships…Rememberingthe early days of my anthropology courses and the lectures on kinship as a fundamental theme, I had a quick internet browse and found this link to a basic online tutorial that brought back memories
http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/kintitle.html
I found it quite fun:)
Although I am sure that Dr Faubion and others contemporary interpretations of kinship are much more sophisticated.