Turkey's war on the free press is bigger than Zaman

From China to Brazil, the world has been curious about what's happening to Turkey's largest-circulation newspaper Zaman and its English language sister publication Today's Zaman, since their seizure by the government in a police raid on their headquarters in İstanbul.

The events of March 4 made for a brutal spectacle. Police dispersed crowds with water cannons and tear gas – including non-violent supporters of Zaman, women and children – who had gathered in front of the building. They then broke down the gates of the newspaper office to gain access.

What's been happening since they got into the building, however, deserves another story.

For most of the Turkish media channels this was just another one-minute news item in their bulletins. The only live coverage was carried by a small station called Can Erzincan – which was only recently saved after opening its doors to broadcasters from Bugün TV, itself also recently seized by the government – thanks to the Periscope coverage of Zaman journalists who tried to record it.

Do you wonder why Turkish media appears to show little interest in the events at Zama while the rest of the world's news outlets continue to keep ringing its editors phones ? Let's look at it.

Recently it has become normal to read news in the country of suicide bombers, Syrian refugees washing up on the coasts of the Aegean or massacres in the mostly Kurdish south east.

I see a whole big profession being murdered, not journalists one by one as in the past.

But even these scandalous developments – which would lead to questioning the legitimacy of any government in a democratic society – do not mean much to people other than those directly affected by them.

People see the news from their own perspective and regard the other as the "enemy." One group's normal is another's abnormal, and there is almost no agreed common agenda to unite people.

The most recent development has been the seizure of the Cihan News Agency, also part of Zaman group. While devastating for some, this latest move move has been applauded by others, especially the increasing number of pro-government news outlets and writers.

There is no secret that Zaman's supporters feel affinity to the international religious and social movement led by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who is in self-exile in the United States. Gülen and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan were friendly in the past, and Zaman even supported the government's line.

But once Zaman investigated corruption claims against leading government officials in December 2013, ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party or AKP) officials claimed the movement was attempting to topple the government and establish a "parallel structure" within the state.

The court order allowing the appointment of trustees to Zaman claims the Fethullah Terror Organisation (FETÖ) is guilty of collaborating with the armed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a claim hard to believe since Zaman has always kept its distance from the PKK.

Even for supporters of the fight against an alleged "parallel structure" in the government, it was absurd to link a news agency with that structure. On Twitter, many users referred to Cihan News Agency's function to monitor election results as well as its fast and accurate delivery of news.

For close observers it was not hard to see that with this seizure, Erdoğan guarantees the country's shift to a Turkish style presidential system since an important polling monitor was forced to leave the scene.

Seizures of media companies are not unusual in Turkey but the justification for these takeovers in the past was usually based on financial reasons.

As US-based NGO Freedom House reported in its investigation, a body attached to the prime minister's office, the Savings Deposit and Insurance Fund (TMSF), recovers debt owed to banks.

"TMSF has on several occasions seized control of media organisations whose parent companies have been in trouble. The reliable result is resale to companies sympathetic to the AK Party. This was the mechanism by which the Sabah-ATV group was sold to Çalık Holding [led by Erdoğan's son-in-law] in 2007, and in 2013 Çukurova's media properties went to Ethem Sancak, a wealthy businessmen and passionate supporter of the PM.

"Even before Sancak's purchase of Akşam, TMSF had appointed a former AKP deputy to be the editor-in-chief of the newspaper; and Doğan sold the newspapers Milliyet and Vatan to settle its bill from the tax case. The sale of Milliyet, perhaps the most respected brand in Turkish journalism, dramatically diminished the influence of the Doğan Media Group."

However, Zaman group's seizure introduces a different dimension to the role of the TMSF since it had no financial troubles until the government spread fear that anybody associated with it might be considered a terrorist.

It is getting harder to count how many critical TV channels have been turned off by the government recently. In October last year, police used force to enter the headquarters and seize control of media outlets owned by the Koza-İpek Group as part of its investigations into the group's purported ties to Fetullah Gülen.

More recently, imc TV, an alternative outlet focusing mainly on Kurdish issues was taken off the air following a court order claiming it was propaganda for the PKK.

Since last week's incident, Zaman's editorial line is now pro-government and its journalists have been waiting to be fired by the trustees who are now in charge at the paper.

Journalism professor Aslı Tunç wrote in the aftermath of the seizure of Zaman in her Turkish column, titled "Lament to Journalism," for Platform for Independent Journalism, how she is losing hope when she sees well-educated, globalised people lose the big picture since their eyes are closed by hatred, rage and grudge. "I see a whole big profession being murdered, not journalists one by one as in the past," she says.

I share her lament as pro-government writers continue to call for the closure of the remaining few critical media outlets.

Yonca Poyraz Dogan is an Istanbul-based journalist who hosted the weekly Monday Talk interviews for Today's Zaman since its foundation in 2007. She co-authored a recent book in Turkish, entitled "Newswriting Guidebook Against Discriminatory Language".