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 Framed front pages adorn Sozcu's office walls in testament to its
status as a bastion of opposition to President Tayyip Erdogan and
the Islamist-rooted AK Party. Red Turkish flags and pictures of the
modern republic's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk celebrate its
secularist roots.
But with the seizure or closure in recent months of several
newspapers, broadcasters taken off air and a German TV comedian
facing a Turkish legal complaint for insulting Erdogan, journalists
like Yilmaz say they are having to think twice about the
consequences of their work.
"You wonder, 'will a court case be opened if we say that?'," Yilmaz
told Reuters in his office in an Istanbul suburb.
"Unfortunately we have reached the stage where if you write the 'p'
of president, an investigation and court case is opened against
you," he said, looking over the shoulder of a colleague working on
the layout of the paper.
Erdogan rejects such claims. He says journalists are free to
criticise him - pointing to headlines that called him a "murderer"
or "thief". Government officials also say no journalists are
prosecuted for their work and that some are detained on suspicion of
membership of militant groups.
 "Neither myself nor my government have ever done anything to stop
freedom of expression or freedom of the press," Erdogan told CNN
International on March 31 during a trip to Washington. "On the
contrary, the press in Turkey had been very critical of me and my
government."
But he warned if journalists strayed into insults, they would face
prosecution in a country where insulting the president is a crime
punishable by jail - though neither Erdogan nor the law has defined
what constitutes such an insult.
Turkey's record on press freedom has raised such concern among some
European Union politicians that they question whether it is a
suitable candidate for membership of the bloc.
Ankara has requested that German authorities prosecute comedian Jan
Boehmermann for the crime of "offending foreign states' organs and
representatives" after he recited a sexually crude satirical poem
about Erdogan on TV. It comes at a sensitive time for Chancellor
Angela Merkel, who has enlisted Erdogan's help in tackling Europe's
migrant crisis.
Beyond headline-grabbing newspaper closures in Turkey, some
journalists, rights groups and Western allies worry that the space
to express dissent appears to be shrinking rapidly.
Mainstream outlets such as the Hurriyet newspaper or broadcaster CNN
Turk, both owned by the country's leading media group Dogan, are
increasingly pressured to toe the government line in their coverage,
government critics say.
'COMPROMISE'
Hurriyet said last week it had added Abdulkadir Selvi, a prominent
pro-government columnist, to its staff, while the Dogan Group last
month closed the liberal leftist news website Radikal for what its
editor said were financial reasons.
 "The group has taken certain steps to make a compromise with Erdogan
... it has made changes in content," said Mirgun Cabas, a former CNN
Turk presenter critical of the government. His show was terminated
for what the company said were financial reasons. The Dogan Group, Hurriyet and CNN Turk declined to comment on staff
changes. Government officials have denied putting pressure on media
bosses.
Dogan, whose interests range from media to real estate and energy,
was slapped with a 3.8 billion lira ($1.3 billion) tax fine in 2009
while last month an Istanbul prosecutor submitted a case against its
founder, Aydin Dogan, on charges of running a fuel-smuggling ring -
which he denies.
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The government has repeatedly said neither case was politically
motivated.
Since Erdogan became president in August 2014, 1,845 court cases
have been filed against individuals for insulting him.
"I believe this time will be remembered as a nightmare era," Baris
Ince, editor of the left-wing Birgun newspaper, told Reuters. He was
sentenced last month to 21 months in jail for insulting Erdogan in
an article about a 2013 investigation by prosecutors into corruption
in government.
Erdogan said the investigation, which centered on ministers and
business people close to him, was orchestrated by U.S.-based cleric
Fethullah Gulen. He said followers of the cleric - who denied the
allegations - had infiltrated the police and judiciary and were
plotting a coup. The graft investigation was dropped after a year.
"Nobody has done a proper corruption story since ... Has bribery
come to an end in Turkey? Obviously not," said Ince, who has
appealed his sentence.
"But journalists don't believe they can win a court case, so they
say, 'I'll spare myself the trouble and refrain from writing such
stories', which is extremely troublesome in terms of freedom of
speech and press."
CONTROL
Last month, state administrators seized control of the country's
biggest newspaper, Zaman, which was affiliated with Gulen's
religious group. Two other papers linked with the group, Bugun and
Millet, were taken over in October.
The government said authorities were investigating whether the
newspapers were involved in illegal funding of Gulen's group, a
charge they deny.
The trial of the editor-in-chief and Ankara bureau chief of
Cumhuriyet newspaper - who face life in prison on espionage charges
- meanwhile prompted foreign diplomats to turn up at the courthouse
two weeks ago in their support.
The paper had published footage it said showed the state
intelligence agency helping send weapons to Syria. The government
said the trucks involved were carrying aid and that the trial was a
matter of national security.
Kurdish media frequently falls foul of the judiciary over its
coverage of a Kurdish militant insurgency, and in February the
pro-Kurdish IMC channel was pulled off the air over allegations of
"spreading terrorist propaganda".
In the wake of a spate of suicide bombings in Istanbul and Ankara,
Erdogan has called for a broadening of anti-terrorism laws which
have already been used to detain academics and journalists.
(Editing by Nick Tattersall and Pravin Char)
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