Freedom of Speech

Journalist Abdülkadir Selvi who was the Ankara bureau chief of the pro-government Yeni Şafak daily has joined the Hürriyet daily’s ranks as a columnist.

The Hürriyet daily announced the news from its front-page in its Sunday edition. “Veteran journalist at Hürriyet,” said the daily referring to Selvi. Hürriyet said Selvi’s first column at Hürriyet will be published on Monday.

News manager of a staunchly pro-government newspaper, Yeni Akit, Kenan Kıran has been appointed as the new editor-in-chief of Turkey’s Zaman newspaper, which was Turkey’s best-selling paper until it was seized in a government-backed operation on March 4.After the news broke in the social media, Kıran introduced himself as “Zaman daily editor-in-chief” in his Twitter bio on Wednesday.In a Twitter message following his appointment, Kıran wrote: “There will be special news coverage about Fethullahist Terrorist Organization/Parallel State Structure in Zaman. Facts will be understood in ‘Zaman’,” referring to the Turkish meaning of Zaman, time.

Today’s Zaman Editor-in-Chief Sevgi Akarçeşme has announced that she was fired by trustees who took over the management of the Feza Media Group on March 4 as part of a government crackdown on the critical media.“The trustee administration fired me on March 16 from Today’s Zaman. From day one I had called them illegitimate. No different than looters!” Akarçeşme tweeted on Monday.

Reactions have mounted in Turkey against a government-orchestrated move to seize the nation’s best-selling newspaper Zaman and its affiliate publications including Today’s Zaman as part of a crackdown on critical and independent media.Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Murat Emir spoke on Friday morning when the takeover of Zaman was still a rumor circulating on social media. Emir said that he saw the move as the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) trying to silence free and independent media.Expressing that the media in Turkey faces new attacks every day, Emir said that the majority of these assaults were being done under the guise of the law. “We [CHP] condemn all attempts to subdue the free media. We are against all attacks [against the media] and believe these attacks must come to an end.”