Turkey shuts down 130 media outlets after failed military
coup 7/27/16, Fox News
DEVELOPING: Turkey's government
has decided to close down dozens of media outlets, including 45 newspapers and
16 television stations in the wake of a failed military coup, the country's
state-run news agency reported Wednesday. CNN Turk reported that 130 media
organizations had been shuttered in a widening crackdown by Recep Tayyip
Erdogan's government. The list
also 23 radion stations, three news agencies and 15 magazines. Many of those
targeted were regional media outlets as well as several organizations that had
already been seized by the state over alleged links to Fethullah Gulen, the
U.S.-based cleric accused of being behind the failed uprising.
The state-run Anadolu Agency also
reported that close to 1,700 military officers have been formally
discharged. In all, nearly 16,000 people have been
detained for questioning over suspected links to the coup attempt, and about
half have been arrested to face trial, Interior Minister Efkan Ala said
Wednesday.
Earlier this week, the Ankara
government issued detention warrants for 47 former executives or senior
journalists of Turkey's Zaman newspaper for alleged links to Gulen, who denies
any involvement in the coup attempt. Such detentions have raised concerns that
people could be targeted simply for criticizing the government. The failed
uprising by a faction within the military led to some 290 deaths on July
15.
The media watchdog Reporters Without
Borders condemned Turkey's purges of journalists, saying they have assumed
"increasingly alarming proportions." "Criticizing the government
and working for media outlets that support the Gulen Movement do not constitute
evidence of involvement in the failed coup," said Johann Bihr, who heads
the organization's Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk.
Turkey's Justice Ministry denied an
Amnesty International report alleging that some of those detained were
tortured. Correct arrest and custody procedures were being applied under a
three-month state of emergency announced last week, it said.
The
Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/07/27/turkey-shuts-down-130-media-outlets-after-failed-military-coup.html
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