Turkey’s media is gasping for breath, choked by Orwellian pressures that have reached an unprecedented level since anti-government protests in 2013. With critical journalism largely subdued and many journalists in jail, an expansive web of government control has come to surround what was once Turkey’s dynamic mainstream media. 

In a striking illustration of how encompassing the control has become, Muharrem Ince, a former presidential candidate from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), stormed out of a live interview May 29, furious that the channel, Haber Global, interrupted the interview several times to broadcast a speech by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at an event commemorating the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul. “Turkey will get rid of this fascist order. Thirty-five channels are already broadcasting Erdogan’s speech,” Ince roared before leaving the studio. “The Republic of Turkey is not Erdogan’s property. I’m not scared of Erdogan,” Ince said. 

The incident was emblematic of how even those willing to give voice to the opposition are forced to toe the line in a climate where the mainstream media has ceded its independence. According to insiders, the government is employing control in three main areas — in the selection of commentators and program guests, the issues that are covered and the framing of the content. 

Independent journalists and even professionals such as doctors, lawyers and engineers have come to be placed on blacklists of people the government wants kept off the screen. Ankara began to tighten its grip on the media after the Gezi Park protests in 2013, which started as an environmentalist demonstration in Istanbul and morphed into nationwide anti-government protests. The pressure grew further after the June 2015 elections in which the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost its parliamentary majority. In 2016, Ankara shut down 12 TV channels that had been critical of the government, leaving almost no space for a balance of voices on the screens.