Capturing the News
President Erdogan’s new style of media censorship is less brutal—and much more effective.
By Jacob Weisberg
As recently as last year, Turkey ranked as the world’s top jailer of journalists, ahead of even Iran and China. On a mission last week with the Committee to Protect Journalists, I was pleased to learn that the list of those imprisoned has shrunk from more than 60 to an apparent seven. On the same day that the Turkish parliament voted to authorize military action in Syria, the president, prime minister, and justice minister all made time to hear our group’s concerns about these cases and a range of other press freedom issues, from Internet censorship to media ownership.
That was the good news from a long day in Ankara. The bad news is that despite a diminished risk of criminal prosecution, media freedom in Turkey has deteriorated in other respects. Journalists we met with in Istanbul described a pervasive atmosphere of fear and self-censorship, a polarized, highly partisan media environment characterized by growing government control and fewer independent voices. The overall picture was of a new style of media censorship that is less brutal, less visible—and much more effective.
photo:by Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images