With a circular in the state newspaper has Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that the country’s media would no longer be allowed to publish anything that called into question the “basic national values”. It is not only the culture of the country that needs to be protected, but above all the children: they and the entire “family and social structure” must not be negatively influenced by “harmful media content”, neither in writing nor through image and sound.
Erdoğan’s statement, which according to Turkish lawyers and scientists is not a decree and therefore has no real legal force, is definitely a further step towards comprehensive censorship of the Turkish media landscape and possibly also scientific publications. Most of the country’s newspapers and broadcasters are already in line, either as state media or in the hands of government-affiliated entrepreneurs. The opposition portal duvar puts the number of media brought into line at 90 percent.
As is so often the case, the government’s actions are aimed primarily at content that deals with gender issues, homosexuality or LGBT. In other words, topics that can be used to create a mood in a culturally very conservative country. The head of state often comments on this, flanked by representatives of his ruling party, the AKP, and the head of the religious authority, Dianet: They all see the young people as endangered by LGBT groups and gender advocates.
But it is also about the political opposition, which has made up ground in recent months. Erdoğan, who has been in power for almost 20 years and who has to stand for elections by summer 2023 at the latest, knows this and is fighting in his own way.
The increasingly blatant mood-mongering from above can also turn against the mood-mongers
The most recent example of political censorship is the crackdown on a well-known television journalist: in a live broadcast on the pro-opposition channel Tele-1, Sedef Kabaş quoted a saying that allegedly ridiculed the head of state: Kabaş was arrested for insulting the president. The broadcasting supervisory authority RTÜK imposed a fine on the broadcaster Tele-1 and a broadcast ban of several weeks for the criticized talk show: Kabaş and the TV program incited the public “to hatred and rebellion”.
Mehmet Yılmaz, columnist of the independent portal T24, then asked dryly how long the head of state had to judge the supposed morality and immorality of a society: ‘Everyone knows where the on/off button on their television is and everyone also knows how to change the channel. We decide for ourselves which button we press.”
A few days ago it became clear that the increasingly blatant propaganda from above can also turn against the propaganda makers. Religious zealots, evidently with a political agenda, had zeroed in on Sezen Aksu, Turkey’s pop icon. The singer insulted Adam and Eve with one of her song lyrics and thus hurt the religious feelings of Muslims: Adam is considered the very first prophet in Islam.
After President Erdoğan picked up the ball and the grand dame of Turkish light music personally attacked the hardest, there was a nationwide outcry. The populist Erdoğan had to backtrack and issue some sort of “that was meant in a completely different way” apology.