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The mass media in Turkey includes a wide variety of domestic and foreign periodicals expressing disparate views, and domestic newspapers are extremely competitive.Turkey country profile
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(January 2006). ''This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the
public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...
.''
However, media ownership is concentrated in the hands of a few large private media groups which are typically part of wider conglomerates controlled by wealthy individuals, which limits the views that are presented. In addition, the companies are willing to use their influence to support their owners' wider business interests, including by trying to maintain friendly relations with the government. The media exert a strong influence on public opinion, and about 90% is controlled by the government. Censorship in Turkey is also an issue, and in the 21st century many journalists have been arrested and writers prosecuted. On
Reporters Without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; ; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organisation, non-governmental organization headquartered in Paris, which focuses on safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its a ...
'
Press Freedom Index The World Press Freedom Index (WPFI) is an annual ranking of Country, countries compiled and published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) since 2002 based upon the non-governmental organization's own assessment of the countries' Freedom of the ...
it has fallen from being ranked around 100 in 2005 to around 150 in 2013. In reaction to the failed coup d'état on 15 July 2016, over 150 media organisations, including newspapers, television and radio channels, news agencies, magazines and publishing houses, have been closed by the government of Turkey, and 160 journalists have been jailed. By circulation, the most popular daily newspapers are ''
Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...
'', ''
Sözcü ''Sözcü'' (English: ''Spokesperson'') is a popular Turkish daily newspaper. ''Sözcü'' was first published on 27 June 2007 by Burak Akbay and is distributed nationwide. As of June 2018, it was one of the top-selling newspapers in Turkey, with ...
'', ''
Hürriyet ''Hürriyet'' (, ''Liberty'') is a major List of newspapers in Turkey, Turkish newspaper, founded in 1948. it had the highest circulation of any newspaper in Turkey at around 319,000. ''Hürriyet'' combines entertainment with news coverage and ...
'', '' Posta'', and '' Milliyet''. The broadcast media have a very high penetration as
satellite dish A satellite dish is a dish-shaped type of parabolic antenna designed to receive or transmit information by radio waves to or from a communication satellite. The term most commonly means a dish which receives direct-broadcast satellite televisio ...
es and
cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...
systems are widely available. The "Radio and Television Supreme Council" (
RTÜK Radio and Television Supreme Council (), also known in short as RTÜK, is the Turkey, Turkish state agency for monitoring, regulating, and sanctioning radio and television broadcasts. RTÜK was founded in 1994 and is composed of nine members ele ...
) is the government body overseeing the broadcast media. In 2003 a total of 257 television stations and 1,100 radio stations were licensed to operate, and others operated without licenses. Of those licensed, 16 television and 36 radio stations reached national audiences. Aside from
Turkish Turkish may refer to: * Something related to Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire * The w ...
, the state television network offers some programs in
Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
, Circassian and
Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...
. Turkish consumers are the second-most media illiterate when compared to countries in Europe, leaving them especially vulnerable to fake news, according to a 2018 study. A combination of low education levels, low reading scores, low media freedom and low societal trust went into making the score, which saw Turkey being placed second lowest only to
North Macedonia North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...
.
Conspiracy theories A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * ...
are a prevalent phenomenon in Turkish media. According to the
Reuters Institute The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) is a UK-based research centre and think tank founded in 2006, which operates Thomson Reuters Journalism Fellowship Programme, also known as the Reuters Fellowship. History The institute ...
Digital News Report 2018, Turkey was the country where people complained the most about completely made-up stories. According to polling in 2024 by
Pew Research Center The Pew Research Center (also simply known as Pew) is a nonpartisan American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the world. It ...
33% of adult Turks believe that media in turkey have somewhat good or very good influence on the country a decline from 57% who said so in 2017, while 63% stated that they had a vary bad or somewhat bad influence on the country. People with a favorable view
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician who is the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the 25th prime minister of Turkey, prime minister from 2003 to 2014 as part of the Jus ...
viewed the media more postively with 47% saying that it had a good influence on the country, compared to 23% of people who viewed Erdoğan unfavorably.


Legislative framework

The
Constitution of Turkey The Constitution of Turkey, formally known as the Constitution of the Republic of Türkiye (), and informally as the Constitution of 1982 (), is Turkey's fundamental law. It establishes the organization of the government, and sets out the pr ...
, at art. 28, states that the press is free and shall not be censored. Yet, Constitutional guarantees are undermined by restrictive provisions in the Criminal Code, Criminal Procedure Code, and anti-terrorism laws, effectively leaving prosecutors and judges with ample discretion to repress ordinary journalistic activities.
Freedom House Freedom House is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. It is best known for political advocacy surrounding issues of democracy, Freedom (political), political freedom, and human rights. Freedom House was founded in October 1941, wi ...

Turkey 2015 Press Freedom report
The Turkish judiciary can and do censure media outlets under other constitutional provisions and loosely interpreted laws, such as “protecting basic characteristics of the Republic” and “safeguarding the indivisible integrity of the State with its territory and nation.” Ruken Barış
Turkey #Media legislation
, EJC Media Landscapes, circa 2010
Freedom of information principles have been introduced with the April 2004 Right to Information Act, affording to citizens and legal persons the right to request information from public institutions and private organizations that qualify as public institutions, although the implementation of the law is lacking. The 2007 Press Law was coupled with a “Regulation of Publications on the Internet and Suppression of Crimes Committed Through Such Publications”, authorising the Telecommunications Communication Presidency (TIB) to execute court orders to block websites and to issue blocking orders for the content providers in or outside Turkey for committing crimes such as child pornography, encouraging drug use and, especially, crimes against Atatürk. Between 2007 and 2010 around 3,700 websites and platforms including YouTube, MySpace, and GeoCities have been blocked.


Status and self-regulation of journalists

Media professionals in Turkey face
job insecurity Job security is the probability that an individual will keep their job; a job with a high level of security is such that a person with the job would have a small chance of losing it. Many factors threaten job security: globalization, outsourcing ...
and lack of
social security Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance ...
, being often forced to work without contract and outside the protection provided by the Law 212 on the rights of journalists. Without a contact under Law 212 media workers in Turkey cannot obtain a press badge and cannot take part in the Turkish Journalists Union (''Türkiye Gazeteciler Sendikası'', TGS) Turkey's 2001 financial crisis further strengthened media owners' hands, as 3–5,000 journalists were fired, and the most troublesome ones targeted first. Some themes have long remained quasi-taboo in the Turkish media, including the role of the Army, the Cyprus issue and the rights of the Kurdish and Armenian minorities. The interests of media owners in the major media conglomerates inevitably cast a shadow over the objectivity and independence of the controlled media outlets.Ruken Barış
Turkey #Accountability systems
, EJC Media Landscapes, circa 2010
Ethics in Turkish journalism is based on a couple of documents: the “Declaration of Rights and Responsibilities” by Turkish Journalists Association (1998) and the “Code of Professional Ethics of the Press” by Turkish Press Council (1989). In 2006 RTÜK introduced a voluntary ombudsman mechanism that media outlets can introduce in order to evaluate their audience's reactions. Yet, ombudsmen lack independence, as they are high-ranking employees of the same media groups.


Media outlets

Turkey hosts around 3,100 newspapers, including 180 national ones. Only 15% of these are daily newspapers. Turkish print outlets privilege columns and opinions over pure news, and are often politically polarised. Broadcast media include hundreds of TV stations and thousands of radio stations including some in minority languages. The introduction of Kurdish-language media has been hailed as a big progress, although their quality remains poor. The main issues concerning mainstream media in Turkey are the heavy concentration of ownership, the widespread self-censorship of journalists and media professionals (also due to their vulnerability to political powers) and the presence of nationalist rhetoric and hate speech.Ruken Barış
Turkey
, EJC Media Landscapes, circa 2010
More than two thirds of the media (national newspapers, radio and TV channels) are owned by few cross-media groups, whose activities expand in other economic sectors (tourism, finance, auto, construction and banking). These media conglomerates thus rely on alliances with parts of the political and bureaucratic elites to sustain their business interests. As a result, the media landscape of Turkey is highly diverse but also very biased and nationalistic, and media coverage and critical positions reflects media owners' preferences and interests. Independent journalism is a rare and dangerous endeavour, at risk of high job insecurity. The centralisation of
public procurement Government procurement or public procurement is the purchase of goods, works (construction) or services by the state, such as by a government agency or a state-owned enterprise. In 2019, public procurement accounted for approximately 12% of GDP ...
decisions within the prime minister's office (which controls the Privatization High Council (OİB), the Housing Development Administration (TOKİ), and the Defence Industry Executive Committee) has stepped up the economic leverage of the government towards economic conglomerates that also control Turkish media. * Leaked conversations showed how in 2013 the government dictated which companies were to purchase the Sabah-ATV group, in exchange for the tenders related to the construction of Istanbul's third airport. * In November 2013 the Savings Deposit and Insurance Fund (TMSF) was used to transfer media assets to supportive businessmen. The AKP-friendly businessman
Ethem Sancak Ethem Sancak (born 1958, Siirt) is a Turkish businessman considered to have "close ties to President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan". He completed his primary and secondary education in Siirt. He graduated from Istanbul University's Faculty ...
bought from TMSF three media that were previously owned by the
Çukurova Group Çukurova (), or the Cilician Plain (''Cilicia Pedias'' in antiquity), is a large fertile plain in the Cilicia region of southern Anatolia. The plain covers the easternmost areas of Mersin Province, southern and central Adana Province, western Os ...
. In 2004 three major media groups dominated advertising revenues:
Doğan Media Group Doğan is both a masculine Turkish given name and a Turkish surname meaning ''Falcon''. Notable people with the name include: Given name * Doğan Abukay, Turkish experimental physicist and academic * Doğan Akhanlı (1957–2021) Turkish-German w ...
and Sabah took 80% of newspaper advertising, and Doğan, Sabah and Çukurova took 70% of television advertising.
In the Turkish context, highly concentrated corporate media power (such as Dogan’s) is even more significant when three additional factors are considered: (1) the willingness of corporate owners to ‘instrumentalize’ reporting in order to fit the wider political-economic interests of the parent company; (2) the weakness of journalists and other employees in the face of the power of corporate owners; and (3) the fact that
corporate power In social science and economics, corporate capitalism is a capitalist marketplace characterized by the dominance of hierarchical and bureaucratic corporations. Overview In the developed world, corporations dominate the marketplace, compri ...
is combined with restrictive state regulation on issues of freedom of speech.
*
Doğan Media Group Doğan is both a masculine Turkish given name and a Turkish surname meaning ''Falcon''. Notable people with the name include: Given name * Doğan Abukay, Turkish experimental physicist and academic * Doğan Akhanlı (1957–2021) Turkish-German w ...
(
Aydın Doğan Aydın Doğan (born 15 April 1936) is a Turkish business magnate and investor. He is the founder of Doğan Holding, one of Turkey's largest conglomerates. Biography Born in 1936 as a member of a well-known family in Kelkit, Doğan went to el ...
/ Arzuhan Yalçındağ) had two-thirds of all newspaper advertising revenue in 2004, and following the 2005 purchase of Star TV had 25-30% of the TV audience.Christian Christensen (2007), "Concentration of ownership, the fall of unions and government legislation in Turkey", Global Media and Communication, August 2007 3: 179-199, doi:10.1177/1742766507078416 (It sold Star TV to
Doğuş Media Group Doğuş Media Group (''Doğuş Yayın Grubu'') is a Turkish media conglomerate, part of the Doğuş Group conglomerate. Its properties include the news channel NTV (since 1999) the music channel Kral TV (since 2008) the entertainment channel ...
in 2011). *
Doğuş Media Group Doğuş Media Group (''Doğuş Yayın Grubu'') is a Turkish media conglomerate, part of the Doğuş Group conglomerate. Its properties include the news channel NTV (since 1999) the music channel Kral TV (since 2008) the entertainment channel ...
(
Ayhan Şahenk Ayhan Şahenk (June 11, 1929 in Niğde – 1 April 2001 in Istanbul) was a Turkish businessman. In 1950, while studying at Ankara University Faculty of Law, he established his company, which would later become the basis of Doğuş Holding, with ...
/
Ferit Şahenk Ferit Şahenk (, born 1964) is the chairman of Doğuş Group and one of the richest people in Turkey. Background Şahenk graduated from The American School in Switzerland (TASIS) and earned his B.A. from Boston College with a degree in Marketi ...
) *
Turkuvaz Media Group Turkuvaz Media Group is a Turkish media company. In 2008, the company was sold to Çalık Holding in Aşiyan, Yıldız, Beşiktaş, Istanbul. the company operates under Kalyon Group in Kemerburgaz, Eyüp, Göktürk, İstanbul. The company's CE ...
of
Çalık Holding Çalık Holding is a Turkish company that has been operating in the energy, construction, mining, textile, and finance sectors since the 1980s. Founder and chairman Ahmet Çalık began his business career in the textile industry, founding Orta D ...
(
Ahmet Çalık Ahmet Çalık (born 1 March 1958) is a Turkish billionaire businessman who is the chairman of Çalık Holding. As of September 2024, ''Forbes'' estimated his net worth at US$1.5 billion. Business Çalık established Ortadogu Tekstil in 1981. ...
) *
Çukurova Media Group Çukurova Media Group (''Çukurova Medya Grubu'') is a Turkish media conglomerate established, part of the Çukurova Holding conglomerate. On 18 May 2013 it transferred a substantial number of its properties to the state TMSF, in partial settle ...
of
Çukurova Holding Çukurova Holding, established in 1923, is an industrial and commercial conglomerate based in Turkey. It is engaged in a range of sectors such as industrial, construction, communication and IT, media, transportation, financial services and ene ...
(
Mehmet Emin Karamehmet Mehmet Emin Karamehmet (born 1 April 1944) is the chairman of Turkey's Çukurova Holding conglomerate. He was ranked the 2nd wealthiest person in Turkey and the 401st globally in 2012 Forbes Billionaires list.Forbes- Mehmet Emin Karamehmet/ref ...
) *
Ciner Media Group Ciner Media Group (''Ciner Medya Grubu'') is a Turkish media conglomerate established in 2007, part of the Ciner Holding conglomerate. Among other properties, it owns the ''Habertürk'' newspaper, Habertürk TV and Habertürk Radyo, and the tel ...
(
Turgay Ciner Turgay Ciner (born 1956) is a Turkish businessman and owner of the Ciner Group, a conglomerate that operates in four main sectors: energy and mining, natural soda ash, container glass, and shipping. Early life Ciner was born in Hopa, Artvin Pr ...
) The
broadcast media Broadcasting is the distribution of audio audiovisual content to dispersed audiences via a electronic mass communications medium, typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began wit ...
have a very high penetration as satellite dishes and
cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...
systems are widely available. The "Radio and Television Supreme Council" (
RTÜK Radio and Television Supreme Council (), also known in short as RTÜK, is the Turkey, Turkish state agency for monitoring, regulating, and sanctioning radio and television broadcasts. RTÜK was founded in 1994 and is composed of nine members ele ...
) is the government body overseeing the broadcast media. TV channels gather around half of the advertising market revenues, i.e. 1 billion dollars (56% in 2005, 50% in 2008, 48.2% in 2009). The share of the print media (36% in 2005, 33% in 2008, 31.2% in 2009) and of the radio (3.4% in 2005, 3.3% in 2009) are in decline too. The advertising market is deemed relatively small when compared to the number of media, thus endangering the survival of the smaller media and constituting a barrier to the entry of new actors in the market. Turkish media also remain dependent on revenues from other activities of the economic conglomerates that own them.


Print media

Newspapers with oppositional editorial line against the government corresponds to 65% of daily newspapers in circulation while pro-government newspapers's share is 25%. The total number of readers of print media in Turkey is low, when compared to the big population of the country (95 newspapers per 1000 inhabitants). Circulating newspapers where estimated at 2,450 in 2010, of which 5 national, 23 regional and other local ones.Ruken Barış
Turkey #Print Media
, EJC Media Landscapes, circa 2010
The media hubs of the country are Istanbul and Ankara. By circulation, the most popular daily newspapers are
Hürriyet ''Hürriyet'' (, ''Liberty'') is a major List of newspapers in Turkey, Turkish newspaper, founded in 1948. it had the highest circulation of any newspaper in Turkey at around 319,000. ''Hürriyet'' combines entertainment with news coverage and ...
(330,000 daily sales in 2016),
Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...
(300,000), Posta (290,000),
Sözcü ''Sözcü'' (English: ''Spokesperson'') is a popular Turkish daily newspaper. ''Sözcü'' was first published on 27 June 2007 by Burak Akbay and is distributed nationwide. As of June 2018, it was one of the top-selling newspapers in Turkey, with ...
and
Habertürk ''Habertürk'' (), abbreviated as ''HT'', was a high-circulation Turkish newspaper. It was established on 1 March 2009 by Ciner Media Group, drawing on the brand of Ciner's Habertürk TV. It ceased publication on 5 July 2018. The newspaper s ...
. Major Turkish daily newspapers are published every day of the year, including Sundays, religious and secular public holidays. Big media conglomerates, with substantial interests in other economic sectors, dominate the media market and own all the major print and broadcast media. These are the
Doğan Group Doğan is both a masculine Turkish given name and a Turkish surname meaning ''Falcon''. Notable people with the name include: Given name * Doğan Abukay, Turkish experimental physicist and academic * Doğan Akhanlı (1957–2021) Turkish-German wri ...
, Turkuvaz,
Ciner Group Ciner Group (known as Park Holding until December 1994) is a Turkish family-owned conglomerate that operates in four main sectors: energy and mining, natural Sodium carbonate, soda ash, container glass, and shipping. Ciner Group was formed in 19 ...
,
Çukurova Group Çukurova (), or the Cilician Plain (''Cilicia Pedias'' in antiquity), is a large fertile plain in the Cilicia region of southern Anatolia. The plain covers the easternmost areas of Mersin Province, southern and central Adana Province, western Os ...
and
Doğuş Group Doğuş Holding A.Ş. (''Doğuş Group'') is one of the largest private-sector conglomerates in Turkey, with a portfolio of 250 companies in 7 industries, including high-end car dealerships, retail stores, restaurants, cafés, construction compan ...
: * The
Doğan Group Doğan is both a masculine Turkish given name and a Turkish surname meaning ''Falcon''. Notable people with the name include: Given name * Doğan Abukay, Turkish experimental physicist and academic * Doğan Akhanlı (1957–2021) Turkish-German wri ...
is the largest Turkish media conglomerate. It owns the mainstream/conservative daily ''
Hürriyet ''Hürriyet'' (, ''Liberty'') is a major List of newspapers in Turkey, Turkish newspaper, founded in 1948. it had the highest circulation of any newspaper in Turkey at around 319,000. ''Hürriyet'' combines entertainment with news coverage and ...
'', the boulevard daily '' Posta'', the sports daily '' Fanatik'' (190,000), the business daily
Referans ''Referans'' was a daily Turkish language business-and-economics newspaper, published in Istanbul. It was taken over in 2004 by Aydın Doğan's Doğan Media Group, and in 2010 merged with the group's paper ''Radikal ''Radikal'' () was a daily ...
(11,000), and the English-language daily ''
Hürriyet Daily News The ''Hürriyet Daily News'', formerly ''Hürriyet Daily News and Economic Review'' and ''Turkish Daily News'', is the oldest current English-language daily in Turkey, founded in 1961. The paper was bought by the Doğan Media Group in 2001 and ...
'' (5,500). The group faced serious fiscal troubles in 2009. * The Turkuvaz Group, owned by the
Çalık Holding Çalık Holding is a Turkish company that has been operating in the energy, construction, mining, textile, and finance sectors since the 1980s. Founder and chairman Ahmet Çalık began his business career in the textile industry, founding Orta D ...
, has connections with the ruling party AKP. It owns the mainstream daily ''
Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...
'', the boulevard daily ''
Takvim ''Takvim'' is a Turkish daily newspaper owned by Kalyon Group. The word "takvim" means calendar in Turkish. History Founded by Dinç Bilgin in 1994, ''Takvim'' was acquired by Ahmet Çalık's Turkuvaz Media Group in 2008, as part of its $1.1 ...
'' (120,000), the sports daily ''
Fotomaç Fotomaç is a Turkish sports daily-published and online sports newspaper. History Fotomaç was founded by Turkish media congolmorate Dinç Bilgin in 1991. The newspaper was merged with another newspaper owned by Bilgin, and renamed as Pas-Fotom ...
'' (200,000), and the most prominent regional newspaper ''
Yeni Asır Yeni Asır is a daily newspaper that began publication in Thessaloniki on 19 August 1895. Its slogan is "Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small ...
'' (40,000). * The
Ciner Group Ciner Group (known as Park Holding until December 1994) is a Turkish family-owned conglomerate that operates in four main sectors: energy and mining, natural Sodium carbonate, soda ash, container glass, and shipping. Ciner Group was formed in 19 ...
launched ''Gazete
Habertürk ''Habertürk'' (), abbreviated as ''HT'', was a high-circulation Turkish newspaper. It was established on 1 March 2009 by Ciner Media Group, drawing on the brand of Ciner's Habertürk TV. It ceased publication on 5 July 2018. The newspaper s ...
'' in March 2009, thus entering the media market. * The
Çukurova Group Çukurova (), or the Cilician Plain (''Cilicia Pedias'' in antiquity), is a large fertile plain in the Cilicia region of southern Anatolia. The plain covers the easternmost areas of Mersin Province, southern and central Adana Province, western Os ...
owns the nationalist dailies ''
Akşam ''Akşam'' (''Evening'') is a Turkish newspaper founded in 1918, owned by Zeki Yeşildağ's Türk Medya Grup (T Medya Yatırım San. ve Tic. AŞ.) since 2013. In 2013 it had a circulation of around 100,000. History ''Akşams founders in 1918 inc ...
'' (150,000), ''
Tercüman ''Tercüman: Halka ve Olaylara'' was a Turkish daily newspaper. It was founded in 1955 by Kemal Ilıcak (1932–1993), and associated with the center-right. It was based in the now demolished Tercüman Building. It was temporarily closed d ...
'' (15,000), and the boulevard paper '' Güneş'' (110,000). *The Albayrak business group publishes the conservative Islamic daily ''
Yeni Şafak ''Yeni Şafak'' ("New Dawn") is a conservative, Islamist Turkish daily newspaper. The newspaper is known for its hardline support of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the AK Party and has a very close relationship with the Turkish government. ...
'' (100,000). *
Demirören Holding Demiören is a Turkish word meaning ''iron braider'' and may refer to: Company * Demirören Group Demirören Group is a Turkish conglomerate company. Its properties include Milangaz (a liquefied petroleum gas distributor with 9% share of the Tu ...
publishes the dailies '' Milliyet'' and '' Vatan''. * The ''
Milli Gazete ''Milli'' (symbol m) is a unit prefix in the metric system denoting a factor of one thousandth (10−3). Proposed in 1793, and adopted in 1795, the prefix comes from the Latin , meaning ''one thousand'' (the Latin plural is ). Since 1960, the pre ...
'' daily (50,000) is deemed to be the voice of
Milli Görüş ''Milli'' (symbol m) is a unit prefix in the metric system denoting a factor of one thousandth (10−3). Proposed in 1793, and adopted in 1795, the prefix comes from the Latin , meaning ''one thousand'' (the Latin plural is ). Since 1960, the pre ...
, a vision promoted by religious-conservative parties in the 1990s such as
Necmettin Erbakan Necmettin Erbakan (29 October 1926 – 27 February 2011) was a Turkish politician and political theorist who served as the 23rd prime minister of Turkey from 1996 to 1997. He was pressured by the military to step down as prime minister and was la ...
's
National Salvation Party The National Salvation Party (, MSP) was an Islamist political party in Turkey, founded on 11 October 1972 as the successor of the banned National Order Party (''Millî Nizam Partisi'', MNP). The party was formed by a core group of working cadres ...
in the 1970s and
Welfare party The Welfare Party (, RP) was an Islamist political party in Turkey. It was founded by Ali Türkmen, Ahmet Tekdal, and Necmettin Erbakan in Ankara in 1983 as heir to two earlier parties, National Order Party (MNP) and National Salvation Party ...
during the 1990s. * ''
Vakit ''Yeni Akit'' (literally "New Agreement") is daily newspaper published in Turkey, known for its Islamic fundamentalism. The newspaper was first published in 1993 under the name ''Vakit'', before finally changing its name to ''Yeni Akit'' in 2010. ...
'' (50,000) is a more radical and sensationalist Islamic daily, which has been subject to several prosecutions. * The ''
Cumhuriyet ''Cumhuriyet'' (; English: "Republic") is the oldest up-market Turkish daily newspaper. It has been described as "the most important independent public interest newspaper in contemporary Turkey". The newspaper was awarded the ''Freedom of Press ...
'' daily (55,000), once linked to the left, is now the reference newspaper for Kemalists and nationalist groups linked to the main opposition CHP party. * ''
Star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...
'' (100,000) was launched by the businessman
Ethem Sancak Ethem Sancak (born 1958, Siirt) is a Turkish businessman considered to have "close ties to President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan". He completed his primary and secondary education in Siirt. He graduated from Istanbul University's Faculty ...
as an Islamic and liberal daily. Magazines and periodicals too have a low circulation when compared with Turkey's population. The main ones are
Tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ...
, Turkuvaz Group's ''
Yeni Aktüel ''Yeni Aktüel'' ("New News" in Turkish; increasingly downplays the "Yeni" and may be referred to simply as ''Aktüel'') is a Turkish weekly news magazine. History and profile The magazine was established in 1991 by Ercan Arıklı. The first is ...
'' (8,000), and ''
Newsweek Türkiye ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...
'' (5,000). Business magazines include ''Ekonomist'' and ''Para'' (around 9,000 copies each). '' Birikim'' is a well-reputed liberal-left journal, publishing elaborate articles on social and political issues. Satirical magazines have a long tradition in Turkey, with the first magazine (''Diyojen'') published in 1869. There are currently around 20
satirical magazine This is a list of satirical magazines which have a satirical bent, and which may consist of fake news stories for mainly humorous purposes. For magazines published online, see List of satirical news websites. List See also * List of sat ...
s; the leading ones are ''
Penguen ''Penguen'' () was a satirical magazine published in Turkey and distributed also to Northern Cyprus. History and profile ''Penguen'' was founded in 2002 by Metin Üstündağ, Selçuk Erdem, Erdil Yaşaroğlu and Bahadır Baruter.Fazıla Ma ...
'' (70,000 weekly circulation), '' LeMan'' (50,000) and ''Uykusuz''. Historical examples include
Oğuz Aral Oğuz Aral (1936 – 26 July 2004) was a Turkish political cartoonist and comics artist, known for his satirical style. He was also active as a theatre designer, playwright, ceramist and animator, establishing the first Turkish animation stud ...
's magazine ''
Gırgır ''Gırgır'' (meaning ''Fun'' in English) was a Turkish weekly humor magazine published from 1972 to 1993 in Turkey. History and profile ''Gırgır'' was founded in 1972 by the brothers Oğuz Aral (1936-2004) and Tekin Aral (1941-1999). After hav ...
'' (which reached a circulation of 500,000 in the 1970s) and ''
Marko Paşa ''Marko Paşa'' (literally ''Marco Pasha'') was a weekly political satire magazine which was in circulation between 1946 and 1950. The magazine was based in Istanbul, Turkey, and subtitled, ''Political Satire Periodical for the People''. It is on ...
'' (launched 1946). Others include ''L-Manyak'' and ''Lombak''. Minority newspapers include''
IHO The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) (French: ''Organisation Hydrographique Internationale'') is an intergovernmental organization representing hydrography. the IHO comprised 102 member states. A principal aim of the IHO is to e ...
'' and '' Apoyevmatini'' in
Greek language Greek (, ; , ) is an Indo-European languages, Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic languages, Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece, Cyprus, Italy (in Calabria and Salento), south ...
; ''
Agos ''Agos'' (in Armenian: Ակօս, " furrow") is a bilingual weekly newspaper published in Istanbul, Turkey, established on 25 February 1996 by Hrant Dink, Luiz Bakar, Harutyun Şeşetyan, and Anna Turay. ''Agos'' has both Armenian and Turki ...
'', '' Jamanak'' and '' Nor Marmara'' in
Armenian language Armenian (endonym: , , ) is an Indo-European languages, Indo-European language and the sole member of the independent branch of the Armenian language family. It is the native language of the Armenians, Armenian people and the official language of ...
; and ''
Şalom ''Şalom'' is a Jewish weekly newspaper published in Turkey. Its name is the Turkish spelling of the Hebrew word (''Shalom''). It was established on 29 October 1947 by the Turkish Jewish journalist Avram Leyon. It is printed in Istanbul an ...
'' by the
Jewish community Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...
. Their survival is often at stake. Distribution networks are in the hands of
Doğan Group Doğan is both a masculine Turkish given name and a Turkish surname meaning ''Falcon''. Notable people with the name include: Given name * Doğan Abukay, Turkish experimental physicist and academic * Doğan Akhanlı (1957–2021) Turkish-German wri ...
’s Yay-Sat and Turkuvaz Group’s Turkuvaz Dağıtım Pazarlama.


Radio broadcasting

Radio enjoys a large number of listeners in the
Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
. There are more than 1000 radio stations in the country. The first attempts at radio broadcasting began in 1921 in
Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
, Turkey. The first radio broadcast in Turkey began on May 6, 1927. In 1927,
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
,
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
,
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
,
Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
,
Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
and
Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...
connection was established. In 1945, Turkey's first university radio with ITU Radio was established. First state radio, on May 1, 1964 TRT Radio began broadcasts, holding monopoly in radio broadcasting until 1994. Establishment of private radio stations began in the early 1990s by young visionary entrepreneurs. The first comers were Energy FM founded by Vedat Yelkenci who also launched the first Music Television TV channels Genc TV and thereafter the Number One-MTV under licence by MTV Europe, Number one FM, launched by Omer Karacan and Ali Karacan, Genc Radyo launched by Osman Ataman, Power FM launched by Cem Hakko, Super FM and Kral FM launched by Cem Uzan, Capital Radio launched by Kalafatoglu. Internet radio in the late 1990s began to be established.Ruken Barış
Turkey #Radio
, EJC Media Landscapes, circa 2010
In 2010 Turkey had around 1,100 private radio stations, of which 100 available on cable - 36 national ones, 102 regional ones, and 950 local ones. TRT four radio channels include
Radyo 1 Radyo 1 is a major radio station of TRT. This network is the earliest radio network in Turkey. Radyo-1 is not a specialized network and presents programs of general interest, including news, science, art, literature, drama, sports, environment, e ...
(general), Radyo 2 (TRT-FM) (Turkish classical, folk and pop music), Radyo 3 (primarily classical music and also jazz, polyphonic and western pop music, broadcasts news in English, French and German), and Radyo 4 (Turkish Music). TRT's international radio service ''Türkiye‘nin Sesi'' /
Voice of Turkey The Voice of Türkiye (short VOT; until 2022 ''Voice of Turkey''; ) is the international radio service of Turkish state broadcaster TRT on the internet, Turksat 3A satellite and shortwave. All shortwave broadcasts are transmitted from a single ...
broadcasts in 26 languages. TRT also has 10 regional radio stations. Private radio stations offer mainly music programmes; the most popular ones are Kral FM (Turkish pop music), Süper FM (Western pop music),
Metro FM Metro FM is a national commercial radio station in South Africa owned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation. The station broadcasts on FM Stereo as well as the DStv Bouquet Channel 801. Telephone : History The station started broad ...
(Western pop music),
Power Türk Power may refer to: Common meanings * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power, a type of energy * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events Math ...
(Turkish pop music), and Best FM (Turkish pop music). Several independent radio stations also broadcast in Turkey, including Istanbul's
Açık Radyo Açık Radyo (Open Radio 95.0) was an independent radio station broadcasting from Istanbul to metropolitan Istanbul and surrounding areas. The station's format included news, music and talk radio. Structure Açık Radyo first began broadcastin ...
(Open Radio), the first to be financially supported by listeners, and encouraging listeners to participate in public discussions on sensitive issues to promote open dialogue. An Armenian-language internet radio, Nor Radio, started broadcasting in 2009.


Television broadcasting

Television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
is the main information and entertainment source in
Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
. Turks have an average daily TV viewing time of 3.5 hours per person (3.45 during weekends), according to a RTÜK survey.Ruken Barış
Turkey #Television
, EJC Media Landscapes, circa 2010
Television was introduced in Turkey in 1968 by the government media provider TRT, preceded by the first Turkish television channel
ITU TV İTÜ TV was the first Turkish television station. Its broadcasts began on 9 July 1952, from a station at Istanbul Technical University (İTÜ)'s electrical engineering department. Weekly two-hour broadcasts from İTÜ continued on an experimenta ...
in 1952.
Color television Color television (American English) or colour television (British English) is a television transmission technology that also includes color information for the picture, so the video image can be displayed in color on the television set. It improv ...
was introduced in 1981. TRT held a monopoly as state-owned public broadcaster for twenty years, until on 26 May 1989 Turkey's first private television channel Star TV started its broadcasts from
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
- thus legally not breaching the regulations. In the following years more than 100 local TVs and 500 local radio stations began operating without licenses. The TRT official monopoly was finally lifted in August 1993, with a Constitutional amendment, liberalizing private broadcasting. The newcomers were, Erol Aksoy launching Show TV, Cem Uzan and Ahmet Ozal launching Interstar (later named as Star TV), Vedat Yelkenci launching the first Music TV Genc TV and thereafter Number One MTV together with Karacan Brothers Today the public broadcaster TRT has 11 national television channels:
TRT 1 TRT 1 (''TRT One'') is the first Turkish national television channel, owned by state broadcaster TRT. It was officially launched on 31 January 1968 as a test broadcast, becoming regular by the early 1970s. It was the only channel Turkey until 15 ...
(general),
TRT 2 TRT 2 (''TRT 2'') is a Turkish Free-to-air culture and art television channel. The channel existed before in its original incarnation between 1986 and 2010, before being replaced by TRT Haber, however the channel resumed in 2019 under a new forma ...
(culture and art), TRT 3 (youth channel with sports and music programs and live broadcasts from the
Grand National Assembly of Turkey The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( ), usually referred to simply as the GNAT or TBMM, also referred to as , in Turkish, is the Unicameralism, unicameral Turkey, Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by ...
at specific hours),
TRT 4 TRT 4 was a Turkish television program. Before 2008, it was a TV station which broadcast cultural and educational programs in Turkey. Introduction TRT 4 started test transmissions on July 30, 1990 as "4. Kanal" or TV4, as an educational chan ...
(education),
TRT Müzik TRT Müzik is a Turkish television channel owned and operated by TRT. It broadcasts music programmes featuring music news magazines and talk show A talk show is a television programming, radio programming or podcast genre structured around th ...
(wide range of music from traditional Turkish music to jazz). It also broadcasts a regional channel TRT GAP for the southeastern region of Turkey, and two international channels
TRT Türk TRT Türk is the international TV channel of the TRT, which is broadcast to other countries. TRT Türk's task is to enhance the understanding of the possibilities Turkey and Turkic republics may possess or take advantage of in various fields t ...
for Europe, USA and Australia, and
TRT Avaz TRT Avaz (formerly TRT Türk) is a channel broadcast by the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation with focusing on Turkey and Balkans. It was launched in Turkey on 21 March 2009 and broadcasts throughout the Balkans, Turkic Central Asia, the Mi ...
for the Balkans, Central Asia and Caucasus. A full-time Kurdish-language channel, TRT 6, was launched in 2009 within the democratization process. Turkey's television market included 24 national, 16 regional and 215 local television stations in 2010. It is defined by a handful of big channels led by
Kanal D Kanal D (English: Channel D) is a nationwide television channel in Turkey that is part of Demirören Group. It was founded by Ayhan Şahenk and Aydın Doğan in 1993. The network has also run an international channel, Euro D, since 1996, whic ...
,
ATV ATV may refer to: Broadcasting * Amateur television *Analog television Television broadcaster * Andorra Televisió * Anguilla Television * Ayna TV, Afghanistan * ATV (Armenia) * ATV (Aruba), NBC affiliate * ATV (Australian TV station), Melbourn ...
and
Show Show or The Show may refer to: Competition, event, or artistic production * Agricultural show, associated with agriculture and animal husbandry * Animal show, a judged event in the hobby of animal fancy ** Cat show ** Dog show ** Horse show ** ...
, with 14%, 10% and 9.6% market share in 2013, respectively. The main media conglomerates own all major TV channels:
Demirören Group Demirören Group is a Turkish conglomerate company. Its properties include Milangaz (a liquefied petroleum gas distributor with 9% share of the Turkish market), the Demirören İstiklal shopping mall in Taksim Square, as well as several newspap ...
owns
Kanal D Kanal D (English: Channel D) is a nationwide television channel in Turkey that is part of Demirören Group. It was founded by Ayhan Şahenk and Aydın Doğan in 1993. The network has also run an international channel, Euro D, since 1996, whic ...
, Star TV and
CNN Türk Cable News Network Türk (known as CNN Türk) is a Turkish free-to-air television news channel, launched on 11 October 1999 as the local affiliate of American channel CNN. It broadcasts exclusively for Turkey and it is owned by Demirören Grou ...
, Turkuvaz Group owns
ATV ATV may refer to: Broadcasting * Amateur television *Analog television Television broadcaster * Andorra Televisió * Anguilla Television * Ayna TV, Afghanistan * ATV (Armenia) * ATV (Aruba), NBC affiliate * ATV (Australian TV station), Melbourn ...
,
Çukurova Group Çukurova (), or the Cilician Plain (''Cilicia Pedias'' in antiquity), is a large fertile plain in the Cilicia region of southern Anatolia. The plain covers the easternmost areas of Mersin Province, southern and central Adana Province, western Os ...
owns
Show TV Show TV is a Turkish free-to-air national television channel, established in 1991 by Erol Aksoy, Dinç Bilgin, Haldun Simavi and Erol Simavi, owned by the Can Holding. History The channel replaces Cine5's now-defunct frequencies, and it was ...
and
Sky Turk 360 360 is a privately owned free-to-air television channel in Turkey. History The channel was initially named Skytürk, from June 2002 until January 2012. On January 23, 2012, the name of the channel was changed to "Skytürk 360". On December 3 ...
,
Ciner Group Ciner Group (known as Park Holding until December 1994) is a Turkish family-owned conglomerate that operates in four main sectors: energy and mining, natural Sodium carbonate, soda ash, container glass, and shipping. Ciner Group was formed in 19 ...
owns
Habertürk ''Habertürk'' (), abbreviated as ''HT'', was a high-circulation Turkish newspaper. It was established on 1 March 2009 by Ciner Media Group, drawing on the brand of Ciner's Habertürk TV. It ceased publication on 5 July 2018. The newspaper s ...
and
Doğuş Group Doğuş Holding A.Ş. (''Doğuş Group'') is one of the largest private-sector conglomerates in Turkey, with a portfolio of 250 companies in 7 industries, including high-end car dealerships, retail stores, restaurants, cafés, construction compan ...
owns
NTV NTV may refer to: Television * NTV (Bangladesh), a Bengali-language satellite television channel in Bangladesh * NTV (India), Telugu regional channel * NTV (Kenya) * NTV (Mongolia), a television channel based in Mongolia * NTV (Newport Televisio ...
.
Kanal 7 Kanal 7 is a Turkish Free-to-air nationwide Islamic TV channel established and on 27 July 1994. It has a terrestrial broadcast licence, and it is also available throughout Turkey via satellite. It airs Indian, Pakistani and Korean dramas. The ch ...
is deemed controlled by
Milli Görüş ''Milli'' (symbol m) is a unit prefix in the metric system denoting a factor of one thousandth (10−3). Proposed in 1793, and adopted in 1795, the prefix comes from the Latin , meaning ''one thousand'' (the Latin plural is ). Since 1960, the pre ...
.
Star Media Group Daily News Brands, formerly Star Media Group, is a Canadian media organization and a division of Torstar Corporation. Its flagship publication is the ''Toronto Star'' newspaper, which is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary ...
owns Kanal 24 as well as the
Star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...
daily. In 2006
Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian - American retired business magnate, investor, and media mogul. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of List of assets owned by News Corp, local, national, a ...
bought the majority of İhlas Group’s
TGRT TGRT (initialism of ''Türkiye Gazete Radyo Televizyon'', 'Türkiye Newspaper, Radio, Television') was a Turkish free-to-air television channel. Launched by İhlas Holding as one of Turkey's earliest private television broadcasters on April 22, ...
channel. The main private TV channels, as well as TRT 1, offer a similar mix of entertainment and news. Samanyolu and Kanal 7 are the channels with a more religious editorial line.
Roj TV Roj or ROJ may refer to: *Rój, a district in Poland * Roj TV, a Kurdish satellite television station *Roj Blake, the eponymous rebel leader from the BBC television series ''Blake's 7'' *Andrzej Gąsienica Roj (1930-1989), Polish skier who compete ...
is a pro-
PKK The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or the PKK, isDespite the PKK's 12th Congress announcing plans for total organisational dissolution, the PKK has not yet been dissolved de facto or de jure. a Kurdish militant political organization and armed gue ...
channel broadcasting in
Kurdish language Kurdish (, , ) is a Northwestern Iranian languages, Northwestern Iranian language or dialect continuum, group of languages spoken by Kurds in the region of Kurdistan, namely in southeast Turkish Kurdistan, Turkey, northern Iraqi Kurdistan, Ira ...
via satellite, rather popular in the South-East. Thematic TV channels include the 24/7 news channels
NTV NTV may refer to: Television * NTV (Bangladesh), a Bengali-language satellite television channel in Bangladesh * NTV (India), Telugu regional channel * NTV (Kenya) * NTV (Mongolia), a television channel based in Mongolia * NTV (Newport Televisio ...
,
CNN Türk Cable News Network Türk (known as CNN Türk) is a Turkish free-to-air television news channel, launched on 11 October 1999 as the local affiliate of American channel CNN. It broadcasts exclusively for Turkey and it is owned by Demirören Grou ...
(a joint venture with
CNN International Cable News Network International or CNN International (CNNi, simply branded on-air as CNN) is an international television channel and website, owned by CNN Worldwide. CNN International carries news-related programming worldwide; it cooperates ...
),
Habertürk ''Habertürk'' (), abbreviated as ''HT'', was a high-circulation Turkish newspaper. It was established on 1 March 2009 by Ciner Media Group, drawing on the brand of Ciner's Habertürk TV. It ceased publication on 5 July 2018. The newspaper s ...
,
Sky Turk 360 360 is a privately owned free-to-air television channel in Turkey. History The channel was initially named Skytürk, from June 2002 until January 2012. On January 23, 2012, the name of the channel was changed to "Skytürk 360". On December 3 ...
, and
TGRT Haber TGRT Haber is a nationwide TV channel in Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black ...
. Music channels include
Kral TV Kral TV is a music television channel in Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black ...
and Number One TV. The quality of audiovisual media is limited by a lack of diversity and creativity among the media, and a "monolithic understanding of television broadcasting" given the quick imitation of popular programmes across channels. The most important reception platforms are terrestrial and satellite, with almost 50% of homes using satellite (of these 15% were pay services) at the end of 2009. Three services dominate the multi-channel market: the satellite platforms
Digitürk Digiturk is a Turkish satellite television provider founded in 1999, with services starting in mid-2000. They provide both national television channels and their own channels, national radio, and music streams of different genres. Digiturk is als ...
and
D-Smart D-Smart is a Turkish satellite television provider launched in 2007. It launched high-definition television High-definition television (HDTV) describes a television or video system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than th ...
and the cable TV service Türksat.


Cinema

The Turkish film art and industry, or ''Yeşilçam'' (Green Pine), is an important part of
Turkish culture The culture of Turkey () or the Turkish culture () includes both the national culture and local cultures. Currently, Turkey has various local cultures. Things such as music, folk dance, or kebap variety may be used to identify a local area. Tur ...
, and has flourished over the years, delivering entertainment to audiences in
Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
, expatriates across
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
, and more recently prospering in the
Arab world The Arab world ( '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in ...
and in rare cases, the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. The first movie exhibited in the
Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
was the Lumiere Brothers' 1895 film, ''
L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat (translated from French into English as ''The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station'', ''Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat'' Sand ''The Arrival of the Mail Train'', and in the United Kingdom as ''Train Pulling into a Station'') is an 1896 Fren ...
'', which was shown in
Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
in 1896. The first Turkish-made film was a documentary entitled ''
Ayastefanos'taki Rus Abidesinin Yıkılışı ''Demolition of the Monument at San Stefano'' (, ) is a 1914 Turkish documentary film directed by former army officer Fuat Uzkınay. It is the oldest known Turkish-made film. The subject of the documentary was the demolition of the Russian Mo ...
'' (''Demolition of the Russian Monument at San Stefano''), directed by
Fuat Uzkınay Fuat Uzkınay (1888–29 March 1956) was the first Turkish filmmaker. After finishing Istanbul Highschool, he took physics and chemistry classes at Istanbul University. While he started to work at a high school as a principal, there was a growi ...
and completed in 1914. The first narrative film,
Sedat Simavi Sedat Simavi (1896 – 11 December 1953) was a Turkish journalist, writer and film director. He established many newspapers and magazines. Biography Simavi was born in 1896. His grandfather and uncles served in different positions in the of ...
's '' The Spy'', was released in 1917. Turkey's first sound film was shown in 1931. The number of cinema spectator has risen since 2000, in parallel to economic growth, political liberalisation and improved quality of theatres. In 2009, around 255 movies were distributed in Turkey, with a reach of 35 million, of which 70 Turkish movies, which capitalised half of the audience. The cinema audience though remains below European average, and limited to the main cities.Ruken Barış
Turkey #Cinema
, EJC Media Landscapes, circa 2010
40 movies are produced yearly in Turkey. Award-winning Turkish films have often been supported by the European Union
Eurimages Eurimages is a cultural support fund of the Council of Europe, established in . Eurimages promotes independent filmmaking by providing financial support to feature-length fiction, animation, and documentary films. In doing so, it encourages co-op ...
film fund and by the Turkish Ministry of Culture, sometimes attracting more audience abroad than domestically. Two Turkish film companies have been bought by foreign investors in 2007 ( Cinemars by USA's
Colony Capital DigitalBridge Group, Inc. is a global digital infrastructure investment firm. The company owns, invests in and operates businesses such as cell towers, data centers, fiber, small cells, and edge infrastructure. Headquartered in Boca Raton, Digita ...
and AFM by Eurasia Cinemas from Russia).


Telecommunications

Türk Telekom Türk Telekomünikasyon A.Ş. () is a state-owned Turkish telecommunications company. Türk Telekom was separated from Turkish Post (PTT) in 1995. Türk Telekom Group provides integrated telecommunication services for PSTN, GSM, and wideband I ...
was established in 1995 as a state-owned company after the separation of postal and telecommunication services. It was privatized in 2005 (55% Oger Telecom, 30% state-owned, 15% public shares). In March 2009 it hosted 17.3 million land line phone users, 6 million ADSL users, and 12.6 million GSM users.Ruken Barış
Turkey #Telecommunications
, EJC Media Landscapes, circa 2010
The
telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...
liberalisation Liberalization or liberalisation (British English) is a broad term that refers to the practice of making laws, systems, or opinions less severe, usually in the sense of eliminating certain government regulations or restrictions. The term is used ...
process started in Turkey in 2004 after the creation of the Telecommunication Authority, and is still ongoing as of May 2013.
Private sector The private sector is the part of the economy which is owned by private groups, usually as a means of establishment for profit or non profit, rather than being owned by the government. Employment The private sector employs most of the workfo ...
companies operate in
mobile telephony Mobile telephony is the provision of wireless telephone services to mobile phones, distinguishing it from fixed-location telephony provided via landline phones. Traditionally, telephony specifically refers to voice communication, though th ...
,
long distance telephony In telecommunications, a long-distance call (U.S.) or trunk call (also known as a toll call in the UK ) is a telephone call made to a location outside a defined local calling area. Long-distance calls are typically charged a higher billing rate t ...
and
Internet access Internet access is a facility or service that provides connectivity for a computer, a computer network, or other network device to the Internet, and for individuals or organizations to access or use applications such as email and the World Wide ...
. There were 16.5 million fixed
phone lines A telephone line or telephone circuit (or just line or circuit industrywide) is a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system. It is designed to reproduce speech of a quality that is understandable. It is the physical wire or oth ...
, 62.8 million
mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...
subscribers, and 6.2 million
broadband In telecommunications, broadband or high speed is the wide-bandwidth (signal processing), bandwidth data transmission that exploits signals at a wide spread of frequencies or several different simultaneous frequencies, and is used in fast Inter ...
subscribers by December 2009. Telecommunications liberalisation in Turkey is progressing, but at a slow pace. The Telecommunication Authority (now renamed ''Bilgi İletişim ve Teknolojileri Kurumu'' or BTK), while technically an independent organization, is still controlled by the Ministry of Transport and Communications. While progress is being made (for example, local as well as long distance calls are now open to competition), the
incumbent The incumbent is the current holder of an office or position. In an election, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the position that is up for election, regardless of whether they are seeking re-election. There may or may not be ...
has so far managed in many areas to restrict access and protect its
monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic Competition (economics), competition to produce ...
. For example,
wholesale Wholesaling or distributing is the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers; to industrial, commercial, institutional or other professional business users; or to other wholesalers (wholesale businesses) and related subordinated services. In ...
line rental is still not available to alternative operators, making it necessary for
subscribers The subscription business model is a business model in which a customer must pay a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a product or service. The model was pioneered by publishers of books and periodicals in the 17th century. It ...
to pay two bills (one for line rental to the incumbent, and one to the chosen operator). The incumbent has so far managed to prevent any operator from connecting its own fiber optic cable at local loop unbundling exchanges, though it is technically required to allow this. Recently, the incumbent announced it is acquiring Invitel, one of only two other players in the inter-city capacity business, raising questions as to how the Turkish Competition Board will treat the acquisition. The lack of progress by the BTK in ensuring a competitive playing field can be evidenced by the
market share Market share is the percentage of the total revenue or sales in a Market (economics), market that a company's business makes up. For example, if there are 50,000 units sold per year in a given industry, a company whose sales were 5,000 of those ...
the incumbent still holds. In broadband, the incumbent's provider still occupies roughly 95% share of the market. The Governmental Audit Office of the President (T.C. Cumhurbaşkanlığı Devlet Denetleme Kurulu) issued a highly critical report of the BTK in February 2010, listing 115 findings to be addressed. For example, the report found #20 points out that the BTK has completed only 50% to 78% of its stated work plans in each of the years from 2005 to 2008. Alternative operators are rapidly growing, yet much progress needs to be made by the BTK to improve the competitive landscape. The political authority is the Ministry of Transport, Maritime and Communication . But there are also two supreme councils;
Radio and Television Supreme Council Radio and Television Supreme Council (), also known in short as RTÜK, is the Turkish state agency for monitoring, regulating, and sanctioning radio and television broadcasts. RTÜK was founded in 1994 and is composed of nine members elected by ...
(RTÜK) and
Information and Communication Technologies Authority The Information and Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA) (), is a national telecommunications regulatory and inspection authority of Turkey. It was formerly known as the Telecommunications Authority (Turkish: ''Telekomünikasyon Kurumu (TK) ...
(BTK). While internet and point to point telecommunication is controlled by BTK, radio and television broadcast is controlled by RTÜK.


Internet

Internet in Turkey has been available to the public since 1993, although experimentation at
Ege University Ege University or Aegean University () is a public research university in Bornova, İzmir. It was founded in 1955 with the faculties of Medicine and Agriculture. It is the first university to start courses in İzmir and the fourth oldest unive ...
started in 1987. The first available connections were
dial-up Dial-up Internet access is a form of Internet access that uses the facilities of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to establish a connection to an Internet service provider (ISP) by dialing a telephone number on a conventional telepho ...
.
Cable Internet In telecommunications, cable Internet access, shortened to cable Internet, is a form of broadband internet access which uses the same infrastructure as cable television. Like digital subscriber line (DSL) and fiber to the premises, cable Internet ...
has been available since 1998 and
ADSL Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over Copper wire, copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem ...
since 2001. Internet users in Turkey reached 26.5 million in 2008, with a 34.5% penetration (up from 7.5% in 2004 and 13.9% in 2005), also thanks to internet cafés and workplace access. ADSL subscribers were 4.5 million in 2008. Only 7% of Turkish women used internet in 2009.Ruken Barış
Turkey #New Media
, EJC Media Landscapes, circa 2010
Estimated internet penetration reached 51% in 2014. Currently
Türk Telekom Türk Telekomünikasyon A.Ş. () is a state-owned Turkish telecommunications company. Türk Telekom was separated from Turkish Post (PTT) in 1995. Türk Telekom Group provides integrated telecommunication services for PSTN, GSM, and wideband I ...
's TTNET
ADSL2+ G.992.5 (also referred to as ADSL2+, G.dmt.bis+, and G.adslplus) is an ITU-T standard for asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) broadband Internet access. The standard has a maximum theoretical downstream sync speed of 24 megabits per secon ...
service is the most widely used Internet service in Turkey, offering speeds from 8
Mbit/s In telecommunications, data transfer rate is the average number of bits (bitrate), characters or symbols (baudrate), or data blocks per unit time passing through a communication link in a data-transmission system. Common data rate units are multi ...
to 24 Mbit/s. TTNET offers VDSL2 service with speeds at 25 Mbit/s to 100 Mbit/s as well. Alternative broadband companies, while mostly still using TTNET infrastructure, such as SmileADSL, Biri and TurkNet are also available. Superonline is offering fibre broadband in limited areas in 12 cities, though the company is enlarging at a healthy pace. They currently offer up to 1000 Mbit/s speeds. Furthermore, relatively wide but not universal coverage of cable Internet is maintained by UyduNET, offering speeds from 10 Mbit/s to 100 Mbit/s. In March 2012, TTNet and Superonline, which between themselves provide the bulk of Turkish broadband Internet access, have started applying "fair use" policies (known with the Turkish abbreviations AKK for "Adil Kullanım Koşulları" and AKN for "Adil Kullanım Noktası") that are overly restrictive in terms of the allowed download and upload quotas. Most accounts are allotted 50 GB download (and 10 GB upload) quotas, after which the bandwidth is reduced 10-fold, down to 1 Mbit/s. Some users have reported that their broadband speeds were reduced in six days into the month. Both companies have been under heavy criticism for their "fair use" policies. The only ISP in turkey that offers no fair-use policies is TurkNet All main newspapers and TV channels have internet websites, constantly updated. Yet, most news originate from news agencies and traditional media, and there is very little web-only content production. From 2017 to early 2020 Wikipedia was blocked in Turkey.


Media organizations

Source:


Media agencies

The main news agencies in Turkey are
Anadolu Ajansı Anadolu Agency (, ; abbreviated AA) is a State media, state-run news agency headquartered in Ankara, Turkey. History The Anadolu Agency was founded in 1920 during the Turkish War of Independence by the order of Mustafa Kemal Pasha. As the Ottoman ...
(AA), Demirören Haber Ajansı (DHA), İhlas Haber Ajansı (İHA), Ajans HaberTürk (
Ciner Group Ciner Group (known as Park Holding until December 1994) is a Turkish family-owned conglomerate that operates in four main sectors: energy and mining, natural Sodium carbonate, soda ash, container glass, and shipping. Ciner Group was formed in 19 ...
) and
ANKA Anka or ANKA may refer to: Organisations and companies * Anka Air or AnkAir, a Turkish charter airline from 2005 to 2008 * ANKA news agency, based in Ankara, Turkey * Anka SK, an Ankara-based Turkish ice hockey club * Arnhem, Northern and Kimberle ...
. They often have access to expensive technical facilities thanks to being embedded in big media conglomerates.Ruken Barış
Turkey #News agencies
, EJC Media Landscapes, circa 2010
*
Anadolu Ajansı Anadolu Agency (, ; abbreviated AA) is a State media, state-run news agency headquartered in Ankara, Turkey. History The Anadolu Agency was founded in 1920 during the Turkish War of Independence by the order of Mustafa Kemal Pasha. As the Ottoman ...
(AA) was founded by
Mustafa Kemal Pasha Mustafa () is one of the names of the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad, and the name means "chosen, selected, appointed, preferred", used as an Arabic language, Arabic given name and surname. Mustafa is a common name in t ...
in 1920 during Turkey's independence war, and remains the official state-subsidized news agency. It has 28 offices in Turkey and 22 abroad, providing 800 news items and 200 photos daily. * Demirören Haber Ajansı (DHA), formerly owned by the
Doğan Media Group Doğan is both a masculine Turkish given name and a Turkish surname meaning ''Falcon''. Notable people with the name include: Given name * Doğan Abukay, Turkish experimental physicist and academic * Doğan Akhanlı (1957–2021) Turkish-German w ...
and called Doğan Haber Ajansı, was founded in 1999. It is owned by the
Demirören Group Demirören Group is a Turkish conglomerate company. Its properties include Milangaz (a liquefied petroleum gas distributor with 9% share of the Turkish market), the Demirören İstiklal shopping mall in Taksim Square, as well as several newspap ...
. In 2011 it had 41 offices in Turkey and 26 abroad. *
ANKA Anka or ANKA may refer to: Organisations and companies * Anka Air or AnkAir, a Turkish charter airline from 2005 to 2008 * ANKA news agency, based in Ankara, Turkey * Anka SK, an Ankara-based Turkish ice hockey club * Arnhem, Northern and Kimberle ...
was founded in 1972 as an independent news agency; it provides a daily economic bulletin in Turkish and a weekly one in English. *
Dicle Haber Ajansı Dicle Haber Ajansı, DİHA (), is a "pro-Kurdish" news agency of Turkey. Activity In March 2012, Reporters without Borders reported that 27 of its journalists were in prison. DIHA produces news reports on Turkish, Kurdish, and English DIHA h ...
(DİHA) is an independent news agency established in 2002, providing services in Turkish, English and Kurdish. * Foreign news agencies also operate in Turkey.


Trade unions

Part of the reason for journalistic weakness vis-a-vis owners is the lack of unions, as the
International Federation of Journalists The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is the largest global union federation of journalists' trade unions in the world. It represents more than 600,000 media workers from 187 organisations in 146 countries. The IFJ is an associate ...
and Europ ean Federation of Journalists noted in 2002:
At the beginning of 1990s, workers of two major newspapers,
Hürriyet ''Hürriyet'' (, ''Liberty'') is a major List of newspapers in Turkey, Turkish newspaper, founded in 1948. it had the highest circulation of any newspaper in Turkey at around 319,000. ''Hürriyet'' combines entertainment with news coverage and ...
and Milliyet, resigned from the union because of pressure from the employer ( Aydin Dogan). Hostility from employers meant that some workplaces where there had been union organisation (including, for example,
Tercüman ''Tercüman: Halka ve Olaylara'' was a Turkish daily newspaper. It was founded in 1955 by Kemal Ilıcak (1932–1993), and associated with the center-right. It was based in the now demolished Tercüman Building. It was temporarily closed d ...
, Günes, and the privately owned UBA news agency) were closed down. Union organisation was not possible in newspapers (
Star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...
,
Radikal ''Radikal'' () was a daily liberal Turkish language newspaper, published in Istanbul. From 1996 it was published by Aydın Doğan's Doğan Media Group. Although Radikal did not endorse a particular political alignment, it was generally consider ...
, and others) nor in radio and television companies which began their publication and broadcasting lives later on. The Sabah group and other media groups have never permitted union organisation. (IFJ/EFJ, 2002: 4)
Turkey's 2001 financial crisis further strengthened media owners' hands, as 3–5,000 journalists were fired, and the most troublesome ones targeted first. Media professionals in Turkey face job insecurity and lack of social security, being often forced to work without contract and outside the protection provided by the Law 212 on the rights of journalists. Without a contact under Law 212 media workers in Turkey cannot obtain a press badge and cannot take part in the Turkish Journalists Union (''Türkiye Gazeteciler Sendikası'', TGS), the only union recognised as a counterpart for the negotiation of the category's collective contract. TGS' influence has diminished since the 1990s, under pressure from the media owners, and today journalists are cautious about union membership, in order to avoid retaliation from employers.Ruken Barış
Turkey #Trade Unions
, EJC Media Landscapes, circa 2010
Despite low levels of unionisation, many journalists' associations exist, including ''Türkiye Gazeteciler Cemiyeti'' (Journalists Association of Turkey), ''Türkiye Gazeteciler Federasyonu'' (Federation of Journalists), ''Çağdaş Gazeteciler Derneği'' (Progressive Journalists Association), ''Ekonomi Muhabirleri Derneği'' (Association of Economy Reporters), ''Foto Muhabirleri Derneği'' (Association of Photo Reporters), and ''Parlamento Muhabirleri Derneği'' (Association of Parliamentary Reporters). Employers organisations include ''Televizyon Yayıncıları Derneği'' (Association of Television Broadcasters), ''Anadolu Gazete Radyo ve Televizyon Yayıncıları Birliği'' (Union of Anatolian Newspaper, Radio and Television Publishers and Broadcasters), ''Televizyon Yayıncıları Birliği'' (Union of Television Broadcasters), ''Yayıncılar Birliği'' (Turkish Publishers’ Association). The advertising sector include the Turkish Association of Advertising Agencies (TAAA) (''Reklamcılar Derneği''), Association of Advertisers (''Reklamverenler Derneği'') and IAA Turkey (International Advertising Association).


Regulatory authorities

The
Radio and Television Supreme Council Radio and Television Supreme Council (), also known in short as RTÜK, is the Turkish state agency for monitoring, regulating, and sanctioning radio and television broadcasts. RTÜK was founded in 1994 and is composed of nine members elected by ...
(RTÜK) is the government body overseeing the broadcast media. It was established after the end of the state monopoly over broadcasting, with the Radio and Television Law no. 3984 in April 1994. It is tasked with assigning frequencies and issuing broadcasting permits and licenses to private companies, as well as monitoring their compliance with the legal framework. It has the power to issue penalties for non-compliance, ranging from warnings to the suspension of broadcastings (after complaints, since 2002 it can suspend single programmes rather than only the whole channel). It has no authority over the public service broadcaster TRT, which is subject to a separate law (no. 2954).Ruken Barış
Turkey #Regulatory authority
, EJC Media Landscapes, circa 2010
Broadcasting standards set by RTÜK are seen as too wide and vague, as in “not violating the national and moral values of the community and the Turkish family structure”, “not undermining the state and its independence and the indisputable unity of the country with its people” and “not undermining the ideals and reforms of Atatürk”. Its interpretation of the law has been both arbitrary and severe, with disproportionate sanctions for non-compliers. RTÜK's claim of impartiality is undermined by its composition and nomination process, leading to strong risks of politicisation and control by the party in government. The body members are elected by the Parliament, and are currently dominated by affiliates of the ruling AKP. According to
Bianet Bianet (acronym for ) is an Independent news agency based in Beyoğlu, Istanbul. Focused on human rights in Turkey it is mainly funded by a Swedish organization. Bianet was established in January 2000 by journalists around , former representative ...
, in 2014 RTÜK issued 78 warnings and 254 fines to television channels, and 12 warnings and 7 fines to radio stations. Since 2002, in order to regulate the frequencies, RTÜK partners with the Communications High Council HYK, founded in 1983 to approve communication policies, and the Telecommunication Authority TK, established in 2000 to regulate and control the telecommunication sector. TK is tasked with frequency planning, yet frequency auctions have often been unsuccessful due to lack of coordination between the three bodies as well as outside pressures from media conglomerates. The MGK (National Security Council) also intervened to oblige broadcasters to acquire a national security clearance document, in order to prevent the establishment of religious TV channels. In 2010 all radio and TV stations continued operating without licenses. As long as Turkish media operate without licenses, RTÜK cannot enact its powers and force media groups to sell their shares to prevent dominant positions and reduce media ownership concentration. The Advertising Self-Regulatory Board (''Reklam Özdenetim Kurulu'') was established by the members of the Advertisers Association, TAAA and by the media institutions in order to monitor advertising practices. TİAK (Television Audience Research Committee), BİAK (Press Research Committee), and RİAK (Radio Audience Research. Committee) are established to organise and monitor research about broadcasting and print media. BIA is a non-for-profit organization that monitors and reports violations of freedom of expression, monitors the newspapers’ coverage about human rights, woman and children rights issues, and the functioning of the media in terms of media ethics. Its news and information network
Bianet Bianet (acronym for ) is an Independent news agency based in Beyoğlu, Istanbul. Focused on human rights in Turkey it is mainly funded by a Swedish organization. Bianet was established in January 2000 by journalists around , former representative ...
provides daily coverage of the issues that are ignored in the mainstream media, especially about human rights, gender rights, minority rights and children rights issues. Bianet has also an English version.


Censorship and media freedom

Since 2011, the AKP government has increased restrictions on freedom of speech, freedom of the press and internet use, and television content, as well as the right to free assembly. It has also developed links with media groups, and used administrative and legal measures (including, in one case, a billion tax fine) against critical media groups and critical journalists: "over the last decade the AKP has built an informal, powerful, coalition of party-affiliated businessmen and media outlets whose livelihoods depend on the political order that Erdogan is constructing. Those who resist do so at their own risk."
Foreign Policy Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, includ ...
, 2 June 2013
How Democratic Is Turkey?
These behaviours became particularly prominent in 2013 in the context of the Turkish media coverage of the
2013 protests in Turkey A wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Turkey began on 28 May 2013, initially to contest the urban development plan for Istanbul's Gezi Park. The protests were sparked by outrage at the violent eviction of a sit-in at the park protesting ...
. The BBC noted that while some outlets are aligned with the AKP or are personally close to Erdogan, "most mainstream media outlets - such as TV news channels HaberTurk and NTV, and the major centrist daily Milliyet - are loth to irritate the government because their owners' business interests at times rely on government support. All of these have tended to steer clear of covering the demonstrations."BBC, 4 June 2013
Turks deprived of TV turn to Twitter for protest news
/ref> Few channels provided live coverage – one that did was
Halk TV Halk TV is a Turkish nationwide TV channel established in 2005. It is known for its relationship with the Republican People's Party (CHP), although the previous links were cut off in 2011 under the new CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.BBC, 4 Ju ...
. During its 12-year rule, the ruling AKP has gradually expanded its control over media. Today, numerous newspapers, TV channels and internet portals also dubbed as ''Yandaş Medya'' ("Slanted Media") or ''Havuz Medyası'' ("Pool Media") continue their heavy pro-government propaganda. Several media groups receive preferential treatment in exchange for AKP-friendly editorial policies. Some of these media organizations were acquired by AKP-friendly businesses through questionable funds and processes. Media not friendly to AKP, on the other hand, are threatened with intimidation, inspections and fines. These media group owners face similar threats to their other businesses. An increasing number of columnists have been fired for criticizing the AKP leadership. Leaked telephone calls between high ranking AKP officials and businessmen indicate that government officials collected money from businessmen in order to create a "pool media" that will support AKP government at any cost. Arbitrary tax penalties are assessed to force newspapers into bankruptcy—after which they emerge, owned by friends of the president. According to a recent investigation by
Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician a ...
, Erdogan forced a sale of the once independent daily Sabah to a consortium of businessmen led by his son-in-law. The state-run
Anadolu Agency Anadolu Agency (, ; abbreviated AA) is a state-run news agency headquartered in Ankara, Turkey. History The Anadolu Agency was founded in 1920 during the Turkish War of Independence by the order of Mustafa Kemal Pasha. As the Empire's capital � ...
and the
Turkish Radio and Television Corporation The Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT; Turkish: ) is the national public broadcasting, public broadcaster of Turkey, founded in 1964. TRT was for many years the only television and radio broadcaster in Turkey. Before the introductio ...
have also been criticized by media outlets and opposition parties, for acting more and more like a mouthpiece for the ruling AKP, a stance in stark violation of their requirement as public institutions to report and serve the public in an objective way. In the aftermath of the 2016 coup attempt, all media outlets considered to have been linked to the
Gülen movement The Gülen movement () or Hizmet movement () is an Islamist fraternal movement. It is a sub-sect of Sunni Islam based on a Nursian theological perspective as reflected in Fethullah Gülen's religious teachings. It is referred to by its membe ...
were shut down by the Turkish government. These include the newspapers '' Zaman'' (formerly the highest-circulation paper in Turkey) and ''
Taraf ''Taraf'' ("Side" in Turkish) was a liberal newspaper in Turkey. It had distinguished itself by opposing interference by the Turkish military in the country's social and political affairs. It was distributed nationwide, and had been in circula ...
'',
Cihan News Agency The Cihan News Agency () was a Turkish news agency based in Istanbul. The agency, established in 1994, was part of Feza Publications, which also owned '' Zaman'' newspaper and '' Aksiyon'', a weekly news magazine. Cihan New Agency, which produce ...
,
Samanyolu TV Samanyolu TV was an international Turkish language TV station with its headquarters in Istanbul. The channel is known for its closeness to Fethullah Gülen, the leader of the Gülen movement. Samanyolu TV was previously owned by Yayıncılık A. ...
and numerous others. Later in the same year, some pro-Kurdish media outlets, such as
IMC TV IMC TV () was a Turkish nationwide TV channel launched on 1 May 2011.Susae Elanchenny, Narod Maraşlıyan, Breaking the Ice: The Role of Civil Society and Media in Turkey-Armenia Relations', GPoT, p26 Presenters included Nuray Mert and . In 2011 ...
, were also shut down for allegedly supporting the PKK.


Former publications

In the post-
Tanzimat The (, , lit. 'Reorganization') was a period of liberal reforms in the Ottoman Empire that began with the Edict of Gülhane of 1839 and ended with the First Constitutional Era in 1876. Driven by reformist statesmen such as Mustafa Reşid Pash ...
period French became a common language among educated people, even though no ethnic group in the empire natively spoke French.
info page on book
at
Martin Luther University Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (), also referred to as MLU, is a public research university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg. It is the largest and oldest university in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. MLU offers German and i ...
) // CITED: p. 26 (PDF p. 28): "French had become a sort of semi-official language in the Ottoman Empire in the wake of the ''Tanzimat'' reforms. ..t is true that French was not an ethnic language of the Ottoman Empire. But it was the only Western language which would become increasingly widespread among educated persons in all linguistic communities."
Johann Strauss, author of "Language and power in the late Ottoman Empire," wrote that "In a way reminiscent of English in the contemporary world, French was almost omnipresent in the Ottoman lands." (, 9781317118459), p
122
Strauss also stated that French was "a sort of semi-official language", (, 9781317118442),
Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...
br>PT192
which "to some extent" had "replaced Turkish as an 'official' language for non-Muslims". (, 9781317118442),
Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...
br>PT193
Therefore, late empire had multiple French-language publications, and several continued to operate when the Republic of Turkey was declared in 1923. However French-language publications began to close in the 1930s. From 1923 onwards: * '' İctihâd - Idjtihad. Türkçe ve Fransızca, ilmi, edebi, iktisadi'' * '' T. C. İzmir Ticaret ve Sanayi Odası Mecmuası - République de Turque Bulletin de la Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie de Smyrne'' * '' Revue commerciale du Levant'' (Constantinople, with the entire city named Istanbul in Turkish in 1923 and renamed Istanbul in English circa 1930) - of the French chamber of commerce


See also

* List of magazines in Turkey * List of newspapers in Turkey * List of television stations in Turkey * List of radio stations in Turkey * Censorship in Turkey * Transparency of media ownership in Turkey * Concentration of media ownership in Turkey *
Media censorship and disinformation during the 2013–14 protests in Turkey The 2013 Gezi Park protests in Turkey saw massive amounts of censorship and disinformation by the mainstream media, especially by those supporting Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (Turkey), Justice and De ...
*
Turkey's media purge after the failed July 2016 coup d'état Turkey's media purge after the failed ''coup d'état'' on July 15, 2016 resulted in the shutdown of at least 131 media outlets and the arrest of 117 journalists – at least 35 of whom have been indicted for "membership in a terror group". In t ...
*
Conspiracy theories in Turkey Conspiracy theories are a prevalent feature of culture and politics in Turkey. Conspiracism is an important phenomenon in understanding Turkish politics. This is explained by a desire to "make up for lost Ottoman grandeur", the humiliation of perc ...
*
Media of the Ottoman Empire There were multiple newspapers published in the Ottoman Empire. European influences The first newspapers in the Ottoman Empire were owned by foreigners living there who wanted to make propaganda about the Western world. The earliest was printed i ...


References


Further reading

* Mine Gencel Bek (2004), "Research Note: Tabloidization of News Media: An Analysis of Television News in Turkey", ''European Journal of Communication'' August 2004 19: 371–386, doi:10.1177/0267323104045264 * Christensen, M. (2010), "Notes on the public sphere on a national and post-national axis: Journalism and freedom of expression in Turkey", ''Global Media and Communication'', 6 (2), pp. 177–197. * Hawks, B.B. (2011), "Is the press really free?: The recent conflict between the government and media in Turkey", ''International Journal of the Humanities'', 8 (11), pp. 75–90. * Tunc, Asli; Gorgulu, Vehbi (2012).
Mapping Digital Media: Turkey
'. London: Open Society Foundations. * - Has abstracts in English and Turkish in addition to French


External links


Freedom House
2015 Turkey report
EJC Media Landscapes
Turkey
ECPMF Resource Centre on Media Freedom
Turkey
OSCE Freedom of the Media
statements on Turkey

Turkey
Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ)
Turkey * Marc Pierini with Markus Mayr, January 2013
Press Freedom in Turkey
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) is a nonpartisan international affairs think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., with operations in Europe, South Asia, East Asia, and the Middle East, as well as the United States. Foun ...
* Dilek Kurban, Ceren Sözeri, June 2012
Caught in the Wheels of Power: The Political, Legal and Economic Constraints on Independent Media and Freedom of the Press in Turkey
Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation The Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (, TESEV), based in Istanbul, is Turkey's leading think tank. The Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) is an independent non-governmental think-tank, analyzing social, political ...
. * Piotr Zalewski, ''
Foreign Affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit organization, nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership or ...
'', June 14, 2013
The Turkish Media’s Darkest Hour: How Erdogan Got the Protest Coverage He Wanted
* Akser, Murat; Baybars-Hawks, Banu (2012),
Media and Democracy in Turkey: Toward a Model of Neoliberal Media Autocracy
, ''Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication'', Volume 5, Number 3, 2012, pp. 302–321(20) {{DEFAULTSORT:Media Of Turkey
Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...