Journalists in Turkey have not given up the fight for media freedom, despite the state’s overwhelming control of the country’s press and television news outlets, journalist Thomas Seibert wrote for The Arab Weekly.

The issue of press freedom in Turkey was widely discussed in late March, when the surprise sale of Doğan Media Group to a government-friendly businessman brought the control of media companies by government affiliates to 92 percent. Doğan’s were the last remaining mainstream newspapers and channels before the sale.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is able to keep these news outlets in line thanks to their owners’ diverse economic interests outside publishing, leading to the use of newspapers, television and radio channels to “curry favour with the government,” Seibert wrote.

News companies that do not play ball are in danger of facing reprisals – as Doğan Media Group’s owner Aydın Doğan discovered in 2009, when he was hit by a $2.5 billion tax fine that was “widely considered” to be politically motivate.

This leaves critical media as the domain of online news sites and smaller newspapers, often attached to political parties, unions and foundations, wrote Seibert.

Online streaming sites, which had risen in importance as the country’s traditional media lost its critical voice, are now also facing government oversight: a new law will require all streaming sites to secure a licence from the government broadcast monitoring agency in order to operate in Turkey.

Besides all of which, the government’s crackdown on the media is starkly illustrated by its imprisonment of over 140 journalists and firing of around 10,000 media workers.

“Especially from the point of view of the people’s right to know, the lack of diverse views and the lack of diverse news approaches to events are gradually causing the media to become ever more monolithic,” wrote Murat Yetkin, the chief editor of Hürriyet Daily News, the English language news site for the former Doğan Media Group newspaper Hürriyet.

Despite these massive obstacles, journalists at a meeting attended by Seibert expressed their resolve to continue struggling for media freedom. “This is our country,” he quoted a prominent journalist as saying. “We have to make our voices heard,” said another.

A third remained upbeat that the period of intense repression would give way. “This too, shall pass,” he said.