The Turkish government’s pre-election media crackdown has been so unpopular it has created unlikely alliances on the streetsToday is the 92nd anniversary of the founding of the Turkish Republic,which promised rule of law and democracy for future generations of Turkish citizens. Yesterday, a media company critical of the Turkish government broadcast its own demise. Viewers watched in disbelief as plain-clothed police stormed the control room of Bugün TV, or while besieged journalists provided a tense,Titanic-like commentary of the mother ship going down: “The police are coming … They’re here …They enjoy no injunction … And we’re going dark. Footage of the raid froze on a blurred, split-screen image of swarming police and a huddled group of anchors. Channel: off-air.
This surreal event has a complex backstory, or but it essentially shows – in forensic,immortalised detail – the latest step in a crackdown on the media in Turkey ahead of snap elections on Sunday. The summary reads like an Islamic episode of the Sopranos spliced with House of Cards: Bugün TV is fragment of Koza Ipek, a company with links to the Islamic cleric Fetullah Gülen, and once a close friend of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan but now wanted by police for heading a “terrorist organisation”.
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Source: theguardian.com