No! The Turkish press has never seen such interference

Al-Jazeera English ran a special edition on March 9 about the current state of affairs in the Turkish media. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s interference with the media was taken under focus. The argument of the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) supporters was along the lines of, “Government interference with the press has always existed. This is very normal. This has always been the Turkish way.”

No! It has not always been like that in Turkey.

Allegedly, Prime Minister Erdoğan called a TV channel’s director to immediately stop a “news scroll” about a statement from an opposition leader last June. His interlocutor’s answer was, “understood prime minister.”

No, it has not always been like that. We did not have a prime minister who could not even stand seeing a news scroll.

What has been the Turkish way is this: The culture of impunity for police officers whose use of disproportionate force has resulted in the deaths of innocent people.

Allegedly, a TV station’s director called former Minister Egemen Bağış to ask who they should invite from the opposition to speak on the channel.

No, it has not always been like that.

What has been the Turkish way is this: The culture of impunity against hate crimes, a version of which we recently witnessed through the statement of former minister Zafer Çağlayan denigrating Jews.

Allegedly, an advisor to the prime minister called a TV station’s editor-in-chief asking to have Yiğit Bulut, another of the PM’s advisors to be on the screen. The editor-in-chief explained that this would spark reactions from viewers and gave a list of the pro-government figures they had invited to programs. In another audio recording, the editor-in-chief called the advisor back, saying Erdoğan had called the owner of the channel to have Bulut put on air. The editor-in-chief said, “I am begging you. Let’s have another person on air. I am saying this for your own good as well.”

No, it has not always been like this.

What has been the Turkish way is this: Releasing rapists and murderers in an attempt to release intellectual prisoners, victims of Turkey’s unhealthy justice system.

Allegedly, Bilal Erdoğan told his father, the prime minister of this country, that a group of newspapers would soon start striking, as the front page stories were ready and waiting for his clearance.

No, it has not always been like this.

What has been the Turkish way is this: Blaming outside forces for all the negative developments that happen in the country.

No one in Turkey would argue that we had full freedom of the press before the AKP. No one would suggest that there have not been efforts on the part of successive governments to interfere with the press. We have seen bad journalism. We have seen biased journalism. We have seen journalists who tried to please politicians. We have witnessed some nasty dealings between the government and media owners.

Yet - with the exception of the diehard supporters of the AKP - veteran journalists and even the intellectuals who have been the staunchest critics of what they called secularists, Kemalists, all agree that the government’s current grip and pressure on the media has reached levels before unseen in Turkey. So no, it has not always been like this.