PHOTO: Scene outside Zaman newspaper headquarters as police raid media group on Friday


UPDATE MARCH 6, 1200 GMT: The Zaman newspaper, seized on Friday by Turkish authorities, has reappeared with a front-page expression of support for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Government.

The lead story is of Erdoğan’s attendance at a ceremony for a key phase in the construction of a bridge across the Bosphorus in Istanbul.

NEW ZAMAN FRONT PAGE 03-16

The English-language Today’s Zaman is still suspended.


UPDATE MARCH 5, 1900 GMT: The editor of the seized Zaman newspaper, Abdülhamit Bilici, has been fired by State-named trustees, as police used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse a protest outside the Zaman building.

The newspaper did publish on Friday night with a reduced edition of 16 pages, proclaiming, “The Constitution is Suspended” in large font on a black background: “Yesterday marked one of the darkest days in the history of Turkish press.”

However, authorities cut Internet connections to prevent further publication, according to Sevgi Akarcesme, the editor-in-chief of the English-language Today’s Zaman.

About 500 protesters gathered and shouted, “Free press cannot be silenced,” before they were dispersed by the police.

TURKEY WOMAN INJURED 05-03-16

During a visit to Iran, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu denied any Government interference in the seizure of Zaman:

They are certainly not political but legal processes. Turkey is a state governed by rule of law… It is out of the question for neither by me nor any of my colleague to interfere in this process.

However, he repeated the Government’s line that Zaman, connected to US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, was part of a terrorist plot: “We should not shut our eyes to…a parallel structure within the state using the press and other tools” to promote its agenda.”

Both the European Union and the US criticized the seizure and police raid.

“The EU has repeatedly stressed that Turkey, as a candidate country, needs to respect and promote high democratic standards and practices, including freedom of the media,” the EU’s diplomatic service said in a statement.

US State Department spokesman John Kirby had said on Friday:

We see this as the latest in a series of troubling judicial and law enforcement actions taken by the Turkish government targeting media outlets and others critical of it….We call on the Turkish government to ensure full respect for due process and equal treatment under the law….

In a democratic society…critical opinions should be encouraged, not silenced.


UPDATE MARCH 5, 1100 GMT: Index on Censorship has launched a petition calling on the Turkish Government to reverse its clampdown on the media.

The petition was launched with the signatures of an international group of writers, journalists, and artists. It declares:

Today Turkey seized one of the country’s leading newspapers, Zaman. In so doing, Turkey has confirmed that it is no longer committed to a free press, which is the bedrock of any democratic society.

We, the undersigned, ask the court to reverse its decision to seize Zaman and urge the international community to speak out against Turkey’s repeated attempts to stifle a free and independent media.


ORIGINAL ENTRY, MARCH 4 The Turkish State seized the leading opposition newspaper Zaman on Friday, with police using tear gas and water cannons on a crowd as they raided the offices.

Earlier in the day, an İstanbul court appointed trustees to take over the management of the Feza Media Group, which includes Turkey’s top-selling newspaper Zaman, the Today’s Zaman daily, and the Cihan news agency.

Zaman is owned by the US-based cleric Fethullah Gülen, considered an enemy of the State by his former ally, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Turkey is already the world’s leading jailer of journalists per capita, and the Erdoğan Government has stepped up the crackdown on the media. Newspapers and television channels have been shut, and prominent reporters and editors imprisoned.

Last week, Erdoğan and his allies denounced a court decision that released Can Dündar, the editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet, and the newspaper’s Ankara bureau chief, Erdem Gul.

Tear Gas v. “Free Press Cannot Be Silenced”

Zaman employees said raiding police immediately tear-gassed hundreds of readers who had gathered, not even delivering the court decision.

The employees shouted, “Free press cannot be silenced,” as hundreds of officers entered the building.

Live footage also showed Today’s Zaman Editor-in-Chief Sevgi Akarçeşme being pushed by police out of the headquarters.

“Police did not let us inside our offices in our own newspaper building! This is pure despotism! They physically blocked me, both men & women,” Akarçeşme tweeted.

Opposition MPs outside the building were also affected by pepper gas.

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), said the court order was a “violation of media freedom” and evidence that President Erdoğan and the Government consider “all dissenting voices as criminal organizations”.

Court: Media Group is Part of “Terrorist Organization”

The order was issued by the İstanbul 6th Criminal Court of Peace at the request of the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, which claimed that the media group acted upon orders from the “Fethullahist Terrorist Organization/Parallel State Structure (FETÖ/PDY)”.

The prosecutor also claimed that the alleged terrorist group is cooperating with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) insurgency to topple the Government and that high-level officials of the two groups have had meetings abroad.

The management and the editorial board of Feza Media Group companies will be replaced by the three trustees named by the court.