What is wrong with independent journalism?


Date posted: December 6, 2013

TUĞBA AYDIN

Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç called on prosecutors to take legal action on Monday against the Taraf daily and journalist Mehmet Baransu, who revealed a controversial National Security Council (MGK) document last week, signed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in 2004, which detailed a planned crackdown on the Hizmet (Gülen) movement.

Taraf published a document last Thursday, prepared by the MGK on Aug. 25, 2004, whose contents persuaded the government to curb the activities of the Gülen movement by a series of measures. It advises the government to use legal methods to impose harsh penalties on Gülen-affiliated institutions.

Eyüp Can stated in his Radikal column on Thursday that if he had found the document released by Baransu, he would also have revealed it, as it sheds light on a turbulent period in Turkey’s history. Can agreed with the document’s publication but believes that the time was not right, as members of the Hizmet movement are currently in conflict with the government over its plan to close exam preparation schools. According to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), it is not a crime to publish a secret document which is in the public interest, wrote Can. Can also adds that even if the government reacts harshly to the release of secret documents, the sharing of information liberates people.

According to Gültekin Avcı’s Thursday column in Bugün, the document plainly contradicts the assertions of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin. The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) accused the government of using the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) to compile a profiling database of files on the activities of 15 CHP deputies in August. After this accusation, both Erdoğan and Ergin denied the CHP claim, saying that such activities had not taken place since November, 2002.

Source: Today's Zaman , December 6, 2013


Related News

Fethullah Gülen lost his friend Prof. Toktamış Ateş, an academic, writer, and eminent democrat

HizmetNews.COM January 20, 2013 Turkish Professor Toktamış Ateş, also a columnist with the Bugün daily, passed away on Saturday January 19, 2013. Fethullah Gülen expressed his condolences in a statement he released the same day, describing Prof. Ateş an exemplary democrat in academia and media. Fethullah Gülen: I am deeply saddened to learn about the […]

Amir Hussain on Fethullah Gulen and Hizmet Movement

Dr. Amir Hussain is a professor of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles. He has written numerous scholarly articles, and his area of research is on the study of Islam, specifically contemporary Muslim societies in North America.

Defamation campaign against Hizmet condemned by CSOs from across country

A large-scale dark propaganda war is being conducted by some circles close to the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government against the Hizmet movement and Gülen, particularly since a corruption scandal erupted in December of 2013 in which three Cabinet ministers’ sons, many state bureaucrats and renowned businessmen accused of giving bribes in exchange for favors were implicated.

Woman detained during visit to imprisoned husband on Valentine’s Day

İ.A.O. was detained when she stopped by the Trabzon prison on Valentine’s Day in a bid to visit her husband H.O., who had been earlier jailed as part of the government’s post-coup witch hunt. The couple’s 6-year-old son, Y.O. was left under his relatives’ care and İ.A.O was ultimately arrested by a court ruling.

In Greece, Turks tell of lives full of fear in Recep Erdogan’s Turkey

Dominika Spyratou of the Greek NGO SolidarityNow, which provides assistance to refugees, says that more than 1,000 Turkish citizens came to Greece seeking asylum after the July 2016 failed coup, while almost 300 Turkish families are now in Thessaloniki.

Turkey Heads Toward Radical Islamic Dictatorship

Thousands have been arrested. Civil rights are suspended. People are jailed with no way to consult lawyers or present a defense. The coup has become an excuse for Erdoğan to purge state institutions, and even the private sector, of his critics, regardless of their guilt with regard to the insurrection. The Turkish government — and a 100% state-controlled media — has accused the U.S. government of being behind the coup attempt itself and harboring its purported mastermind, Fetullah Gulen.

Latest News

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

University refuses admission to woman jailed over Gülen links

In Case You Missed It

Chinese delight in Turkish Culture and Food Festival

Kalashnikov-carrying police raid Gülen-inspired girls’ dormitory

Don’t forget! The real agenda is corruption, theft

Turkish experience in Sudan: making a difference

Turkey’s Witch-Hunt Against the Gülen Movement Should Stop

Court accepts indictment against 9 officers in case seen as political witch hunt

Dutch, German intelligence agencies uncover Turkish kidnapping, murder plots

Copyright 2024 Hizmet News