Sunday, December 14, 2014

What happenned to Zaman and Samanyolu TV (A short list of events)



12/23/2013       Turkey's flagship carrier Turkish Airlines (THY) stopped the distribution of the Zaman, Today's Zaman, Bugün and Ortadoğu dailies to business-class passengers on its planes on Monday without any explanation, though other dailies are still being handed out onboard.

1/6/2014           CHP Deputy Chairman Sezgin Tanrıkulu submitted a question in Parliament on Monday asking Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan why the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) has canceled its subscriptions to the Zaman and Bugün dailies.

2/7/2014           The deportation of Today's Zaman journalist Mahir Zeynalov for Twitter messages that were critical of the government is a setback for press freedom, say international press organizations

3/2/2014              The Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) has issued a warning over news program “Derin Bakış” (Deep View), which is broadcast on Samanyolu News TV, on the grounds that the program is “biased,” only a week after it penalized Bugün TV for the same reason.

3/25/2014            The Supreme Election Board (YSK) has issued a three-week broadcasting suspension for Bugün TV's news program “Özgür İfade” (Free Expression) and a four-week broadcasting suspension for another program on the same TV channel, “Gündem Özel” (Special Agenda), on the grounds that both have violated the equality of opportunity among political parties.

3/27/2014            The Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) has suspended 15 more programs of the Samanyolu Haber TV news channel, in addition to the suspension of 20 programs in mid-March, Samanyolu Broadcasting Group General Manager Hidayet Karaca said on Wednesday.

4/4/2014              On Thursday night Samanyolu Haber TV news channel was the latest to face a cyber attack, as readers have at times also recently been unable to access the websites of the dailies Zaman, Today's Zaman and Taraf, as well as the Cihan news agency, particularly since the night of the local elections on March 30.

5/28/2014            In Mardin, Hizmet movement's two radio channels were banned because they are allegedly a "threat to national security" 

6/4/2014              The Supreme Board of Radio and Television (RTÜK) has been harassing TV networks that it deems to be anti-government, and Samanyolu TV has become one of its major targets.

6/5/2014              A prosecutor has filed charges against a director of Samanyolu TV accusing him of “insulting” and “slandering” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and fomenting “grudges and hostility among the public,” demanding up to 11 years and two months in prison.

6/7/2014              Prime Minister Erdogan claimed that if "the December 17th plot" were successful, those who are not subscribed to Zaman daily will be purged from their posts by Hizmet operations

6/12/2014            Construction of Samanyolu Media Center building in Istanbul was halted without any reason

7/1/2014              The ruling AKP imposed a media accreditation ban on a number of outlets, including Taraf, Sözcü, Yurt, Birgün, Evrensel, Yeni Asya and Aydınlık dailies, as well as broadcasters Halk TV, Ulusal Kanal and Hayat TV, preventing them from covering a ceremony to announce Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's candidacy for the presidency on Tuesday.

7/10/2014            Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan urged people to boycott the Zaman media group while speaking in a rally in the Black Sea city of Tokat on Wednesday.

7/11/2014            The government reportedly held a secret meeting at the Finance Ministry in June to damage the credibility of 100,000 companies considered to be linked to the Hizmet movement, which were already being profiled by the government and refusing to obey the government's ill-motivated instructions, the Taraf daily claimed.

7/11/2014            Minutes before Friday's iftar, the breaking of the Ramadan fast, The municipal police of the AKP Üsküdar municipality forced a Samanyolu TV (STV) crew out of the mosque's garden, where they were shooting a Ramadan program, despite the crew having gained official permission from the authorities.

7/14/2014            A member of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has submitted a written parliamentary question demanding to know if 100,000 companies have been profiled by the National Police Department on the grounds that they are close to the Hizmet movement.


7/16/2014            Main opposition CHP Deputy Chairman Sezgin Tanrıkulu spoke in Parliament on Wednesday about the cancellation of the award ceremony of a short film contest after the competition was won by Seleme Gülen, a relative of Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.

7/21/2014            The Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) fined Samanyolu TV on Sunday for running a news story about a student named Fethullah Gülen who prepared for the Transition to Higher Education Examination (YGS) with the Hizmet-affiliated Körfez University Preparation School in İzmir.

7/31/2014            Deputy Chairman of the AKP Suleyman Soylu woved to "exterminate" Hizmet movement activists

8/10/2014            A 35-year-old man has been killed in Yalova province by a drug addict on the grounds that the victim was a follower of the faith-based Hizmet movement, against which the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has declared battle since last year, and because he was a critic of Erdoğan.

8/19/2014            Independent and critical media outlets in Turkey -- including Zaman, the country's highest-circulation newspaper, and Cihan, the country's largest private news agency -- were denied accreditation to cover the ruling AKP extraordinary congress slated for Aug. 27.


8/22/2014            The Ministry of Education has blocked access to samanyoluhaber.com, a news website affiliated with the Hizmet movement, at institutions and organizations that are linked to the ministry.

9/18/2014            Reporters from the Zaman daily and the Cihan news agency were excluded from European Union Affairs Minister and chief EU negotiator Volkan Bozkır's press meeting in Brussels on Thursday

9/26/2014            Erdoğan’s men attack 2 journalists from Zaman, Bugün in US


9/26/2014            The Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) has fined the STV and Samanyolu Haber television stations 1 percent of their advertising revenues over their reports on a police officer who lost his wife and the couple's unborn baby after being arrested as part of a government-backed operation against members of the police force.

11/18/2014         Correspondents from the Zaman and Bugun newspapers, the Samanyolu TV station and Cihan news agency say they have been banned from the presidential palace since Erdogan’s inauguration in August and no longer receive official press releases


I have compiled media related facts from a wider report. Please read the full report from http://www.rethinkinstitute.org/persecution-hizmet-gulen-movement-turkey-chronicle/