Erkan quoted in The Media Line piece: “Turkey?s Jails Filling Up With Journalists”

TURKEY?S JAILS FILLING UP WITH JOURNALISTS
Kurdish reporter?s arrest over weekend is the latest in wave of detentions

Aziz Tekin, a correspondent for the Kurdish-language newspaper Azadiya Welat, had the misfortune of becoming a news item himself over the weekend when he became the 105th journalist in Turkey to be put behind bars……….

………Erkan Saka, who teaches at Istanbul Bilgi University?s communications school and blogs at Erkan?s Field Diary, said the arrests are part of that realignment, which is now encompassing the secular, establishment media. ?Under normal conditions, mainstream media has values in parallel to establishment, but now establishment itself is changing,? he said.

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But Erdogan and others in the government have come to the defense of the country?s media freedom. ?Turkey does not deserve the negative image portrayed to the world by the main opposition and some journalists and writers,? he said last week at an event marking the 25th anniversary of a pro-government newspaper, Zaman.

Others would beg to differ. They say that Erdogan has encouraged an atmosphere of press hostility with personal attacks on journalists who criticize him and his government and by personally pursing defamation lawsuits. Indeed, while defending the country?s record on media freedom, he decried in the same speech media conspiracies against the government.

?If you claim to have media freedom, you shouldn?t launch attacks on [newspaper] columnists who are critical of you. But he does that all that time,? Saka said. ?That triggers anti-journalist feeling in the bureaucracy and judiciary.?