Erdoğan v the media In a country where journalists’ blood has been spilt, Turkey’s prime minister animus towards the media risks creating tragedies.

A Turkish leader’s visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos would normally not be a headline-grabbing affair. But when Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stormed out of a discussion on Gaza, leaving a stunned Israeli president and other panellists in the dust, there was a blitz of international coverage and flattering media attention at home.

The political theatre, and the hero’s welcome Erdoğan received back in Istanbul, may in part reflect the growing unease amongst Turkey’s Muslim population about the country’s good relations with Israel after its most recent offensive in Gaza.

But it also showed a side of the charismatic leader that many Turkish journalists have come to know – a politician who is prone to using the public arena to vent his anger. He blasted the international news organisations for a pro-Israel bias in their reporting on recent events in Gaza, and for months he has used his political pulpit to target journalists at home.

If these were the casual remarks of a politician unhappy with the news coverage he receives, they would be unremarkable. But in Erdoğan’s case, there has been a rising tempo of verbal attacks, and he has urged his supporters to boycott media that are deemed too critical. If you cannot silence the press, at least hit them where it hurts, the rationale appears to be.

He has also not refrained from criticising outsiders. Just days before US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s scheduled visit this week, Erdoğan denounced a new State Department report on human rights that raised concerns about numerous legal barriers to free expression in Turkey, including those that criminalise insults to the state.

The US State Department, like many press freedom and human-rights groups, question why Article 301 – the notorious ‘Turkishness’ law that has been used to charge journalists, writers and intellectuals – remains on the books. It was watered down last year but remains a weapon against free expression. (One prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist convicted under this law, Hrant Dink, was murdered in 2007 by self-described ultranationalists, who are currently on trial.) Erdoğan has also publicly denounced the International Press Institute, which is directed by the author of this article, for imploring him to stop threatening media about their reporting.

The risks of a national leader attempting to incite public antipathy to the press became apparent in January, one day after the incident in Davos. The prime minister used something as benign as a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new Istanbul underground station as a platform to blast reporters. A brief confrontation broke out during his speech, and as news photographers homed in to get footage, the crowd turned on journalists, attacking them in front of the prime minister who, according to eyewitness accounts, did little to intervene.

Despite this incident, the prime minister’s criticism of journalists has continued on the campaign trail as he canvasses the country in advance of the 29 March municipal elections.

The crowd turned on journalists, attacking them in front of the prime minister who did little to intervene.

Erdoğan’s anti-media campaign seems to stem from reports that have linked him to a Turkish charity, Deniz Feneri, whose managers were tried in Germany last year on charges of defrauding donors of €16 million. The prime minister has denied any connection to the charity, and German prosecutors have also said there was nothing linking the defendants to Erdoğan.

But he has lashed out at the country’s largest media company, the Dogan Media Group, demanding that its editors reveal their motives for reporting on the charity scandal. On several occasions, the prime minister has urged his supporters to stop buying papers that, as he told one rally, “stand by others, rather than stand by the prime minister of the Turkish Republic”. There were also other troubling actions. In December, the prime minister’s office refused to renew press credentials for several long-time political reporters.

Then in February, Turkey’s finance ministry fined Dogan an unprecedented €380 million (826 million Turkish lira) for tax evasion related to sales of foreign assets. While the Turkish authorities insist that the fine had nothing to do with Erdoğan’s criticism of Dogan’s news coverage, the timing – after months of criticism from the prime minister – only raises the spectre of a politically motivated campaign to bring the media company to its knees.

The prime minister’s outbursts against the press are odd for a man who himself was once unjustly banned from political office because of his religious views. They also defy the laudable reforms he has shepherded through parliament since he came to power in 2002, and his push to put Turkish law in sync with the European Union.

Erdoğan’s campaign against the media sends a message that they are fair game for bullying and boycotts. But it also carries grave risks for journalists. Questioning the media’s loyalty is dangerous in a country where some individuals have already used perceived affronts to ‘Turkishness’ as an excuse to commit violence and, in Dink’s case, murder. The prime minister needs to step back. If he does not, this is one piece of political theatre that risks moving from drama to tragedy.

David Dadge is director of the International Press Institute, a Vienna-based press-freedom organisation.