Arrested journalist Hidayet Karaca’s letter published in Le Monde

In a letter featured in the French newspaper Le Monde on Monday, imprisoned Samanyolu Broadcast Group President Hidayet Karaca warns the world over the increasing media crackdown, perpetrated by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
In a letter featured in the French newspaper Le Monde on Monday, imprisoned Samanyolu Broadcast Group President Hidayet Karaca warns the world over the increasing media crackdown, perpetrated by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.


Date posted: February 10, 2015

EMRE DEMİR / PARIS

Arrested journalist Hidayet Karaca’s letter detailing the threats that the media in Turkey face was published by Le Monde, one of the leading newspapers in France, on Monday.

Karaca, the chairman of the Samanyolu Broadcasting Group, has been imprisoned for 57 days following a media crackdown on Dec. 14 due to a fictitious TV series that aired on his TV channel.

In his letter to Le Monde, a daily with a circulation of 312,000 and which receives 64 million visitors to its web site monthly, Karaca said the independent media in Turkey is under an unprecedented threat.

In the letter that was published under the title “I am Hidayet Karaca, an arrested journalist in [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan’s Turkey,” Karaca said he is not the first journalist to be arrested in Turkey, but given the authoritarian practices of the government, he will not be the last journalist to be arrested either. Karaca stated that the pressure on the media in Turkey goes far beyond what is visible.

Referring to the march of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu in Paris following the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo in January, Karaca said Davutoğlu’s participation is both pleasing and ironic since the Turkish government argues that many journalists are imprisoned because of their terrorist involvement.

“The writer of this letter is among those terrorist-journalists ” Karaca pointed out, noting he has been a journalist for 22 years and is an executive of one of the five major media groups in Turkey with 14 TV channels broadcasting in different languages including Turkish, English, Arabic and Kurdish.

Karaca said his media group, along with the Gülen movement, also known as the Hizmet movement and inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, has been the latest victims of the “witch hunt” by the government. He added that any dissident in Turkey are proclaimed as being a “traitor” and his media group has become a target for not supporting the worsening conditions in Turkey.

Source: Today's Zaman , February 09, 2015

Tags: | | |


Related News

Barton: Erdoğan intoxicated by power, imperiling democracy in Turkey

Professor Greg Barton, acting director of the Centre for Islam and the Modern World at the Melbourne-based Monash University has expressed his concerns about the course of events in Turkey in terms of basic rights and democracy.

Victims of forced disappearance in Turkey

On this ‘International day of the victims of enforced disappearances’ (August 30), let’s raise our voices for the missing people of Turkey. In the aftermath of the coup attempt last year, at least thirteen people have been abducted allegedly by elements linked to the Turkish government as part of an intimidation campaign targeting critics and opponents of Turkey’s president.

Gov’t to destroy 216K math, science textbooks published by Hizmet affiliated publishers

Turkey’s Education Ministry has decided to destroy at least 216,233 copies of math and science textbooks published by publishing houses affiliated with the Gülen movement, according to Hürriyet daily.

TÜBİTAK scolded for hiding olympiad winners were from Hizmet schools

The president and members of the government have scolded the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) for not revealing that the majority of medal winners at two recent scholastic olympiad events were students from schools affiliated with the Hizmet movement, the Taraf daily reported on Tuesday.

Inspectors finds no flaw in Kimse Yok Mu activities

A report prepared by inspectors assigned by the Interior Ministry earlier this year clearly states that not a single irregularity was discovered in the activities of the charity organization Kimse Yok Mu at the end of an audit carried out by the ministry’s inspectors.

Turkey jails teacher to pressure husband into ‘confessing’

The latest victim of the Turkish government’s tactic of guilt by association with the purpose of blackmail is Semra Çakır, a 41-year-old teacher, and her 2-year-old daughter Zeynep Şura Çakır as part of its massive post-coup witch-hunt targeting alleged members of the Gülen movement.

Latest News

Turkish inmate jailed over alleged Gülen links dies of heart attack in prison

Message of Condemnation and Condolences for Mass Shooting at Bondi Beach, Sydney

Media executive Hidayet Karaca marks 11th year in prison over alleged links to Gülen movement

ECtHR faults Turkey for convictions of 2,420 applicants over Gülen links in follow-up to 2023 judgment

New Book Exposes Erdoğan’s “Civil Death Project” Targeting the Hizmet Movement

European Human Rights Treaty Faces Legal And Political Tests

ECtHR rejects Turkey’s appeal, clearing path for retrials in Gülen-linked cases

Erdoğan’s Civil Death Project’ : The ‘politicide’ spanning more than a decade

Fethullah Gülen’s Vision and the Purpose of Hizmet

In Case You Missed It

Fethullah Gulen, the man rushing to put out the fire

Turkey: Time the world intervened

A modern Ottoman

Pro-gov’t media knows no limits in ’parallel’ claims

Turkish police detain another woman shortly after caesarean delivery

40 CSOs in US slam hate speech being used by gov’t officials

Erdogan Changes Tactics On Attempt To Shut Turkish Schools

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News