|
 Police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse a few thousand
supporters who gathered outside Zaman newspaper's offices and
chanted, "Free press cannot be silenced."
Rights groups and European officials criticized the confiscation of
Zaman and its sister publication, the English-language Today's
Zaman, which occurred on the eve of a summit between Turkey and the
European Union and as concerns mount that the Turkish government is
stifling critical media.
Administrators were appointed to run Zaman at the request of an
Istanbul prosecutor, state-run Anadolu Agency reported. Officials
were not immediately available to confirm the reports.
Erdogan accuses Gulen of conspiring to overthrow the government by
building a network of supporters in the judiciary, police and media.
Gulen denies the charges. The two men were allies until police and
prosecutors seen as sympathetic to Gulen opened a corruption probe
into Erdogan's inner circle in 2013.
 "It has been a habit for the last three, four years, that anyone who
is speaking against government policies is facing either court cases
or prison, or such control by the government," said Abdulhamit
Bilici, editor-in-chief of Zaman.
"This is a dark period for our country, our democracy."
Zaman is Turkey's biggest selling newspaper, with a circulation of
650,000 as of the end of February, according to media-sector monitor
MedyaTava website.
Police in riot gear pushed back Zaman supporters who stood in the
rain outside its Istanbul office where they waved Turkish flags and
carried placards reading "Hands off my newspaper" before they were
overcome by clouds of tear gas, live footage on Zaman's website
showed.
Officers then forcibly broke down a gate and rushed into the
building. The footage showed them scuffling with Zaman staff inside
the offices.
EU STANCE
"Zaman Media Group being silenced in Turkey. Crackdown on press
freedom continues sadly," Kati Piri, the European Parliament's
rapporteur on Turkey, said in a tweet.
The EU is accused of turning a blind eye to Turkey's human rights
breaches, including the deaths of hundreds of civilians during
security operations against Kurdish militants, because it needs
Turkey's help curbing the flow of migrants.
[to top of second column] |
The crackdown on Zaman comes at an already worrying time for press
freedom in Turkey.
Two prominent journalists from the pro-opposition Cumhuriyet
newspaper are facing potential life sentences on charges of
endangering state security for publishing material that purports to
show intelligence officials trucking arms to Syria.
Authorities have previously seized and shut down opposition media
outlets associated with the Gulen movement. The state deposit
insurance fund said this week that an Islamic bank founded by Gulen
followers might be liquidated within months.
The Zaman takeover came hours after police detained businessmen over
allegations of financing what prosecutors described as a "Gulenist
terror group", Anadolu said.
Memduh Boydak, chief executive of furniture-to-cables conglomerate
Boydak Holding, as well as the group's chairman Haci Boydak and two
board members, were taken into custody.
Nobody from the company, based in the central Turkish city of
Kayseri, was available to comment.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, the New York-based advocacy
group, expressed "alarm" over the court ruling against Zaman, and
executive director Joel Simon said in a statement it "paves the way
to effectively strangle the remnants of critical journalism in
Turkey."
(Additional reporting by Melih Aslan; Writing by David Dolan and
Daren Butler; Editing by Gareth Jones, Toni Reinhold)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
