There is no Doğan Media Group (DMG) anymore. This triggered a great anxiety among the government critics. Well, nearly 90 % of all mainstream media is owned by people who are explicitly pro-Erdoğan. That is, there is not even a pretension of being objective etc. If I had the power to let thing happen, I would have thought about what to do but since I can only be an observer, I can say that this very long time lasting pretension of mainstream journalism done by DMG might be something positive. My only worry is that the media personnel who might lose their job after the sale. The purchaser, Demirören, is more merciless than Doğan in case of employment relations. Apart from that, it is a good riddance. DMG always acted against Turkey’s democratic forces. It always but always sided with Establishment. If there were times, and yes there were times, DMG sided with democratic struggles, it was because it used them as tools in its intra-elite battles. However, some miscalculations in intra-elite rivalries did cost the group much. In the last decade, DMG did not contribute much to quality journalism. When it invested in digital communications, it monopolized most of the digital ad revenues that could better be used by independent actors, it mostly relied on clickbait tactics. From hackathons to online-only projects- messing up with Radikal daily- nothing substantive emerged. In the meantime, DMG gradually gave in the government, and despite some sparkles of criticism from the composition of guests to news language, there was just pretending.
Now that DMG is gone, we have a better chance of focusing on alternative media channels. Or better to say, they have more chance to get our attention with good journalism. Citizen journalism may be dying elsewhere, but this can be integrated into alternative and independent channels. With new business models, independent media can survive financially without relying on tons of money DMG expended. It is definitely the time for a strong, independent and quality journalism….
Yesterday’s announced sale of Turkey’s biggest media group, Doğan Media Company, to a pro-government conglomerate, Demirören Holding, confirms the death of media pluralism in Turkey, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said. Doğan was
It was exactly 15 years ago that people in Turkey began to use the term “sahipsiz gazete” or “proprietorless newspaper”. At the time, the words were greeted with a slight smile. There was a widespread belief that a
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) regards the long prison sentences sought by the prosecution in the trial of 31 former Zaman newspaper employees – including life imprisonment for nine of its former columnists – as an extremely ruthless
Businessman with ties to President Erdoğan in talks to buy Hürriyet-owner Doğan Media
The owner of the largest independent media outlets in Turkey that still permit criticism of the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, have announced it is in talks to sell them to a pro-government business conglomerate in what would amount to another blow to free speech in the country.
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