Journalists Flee Turkey as Government Purge Targets Media

Turkey’s brutal crackdown in the wake of a failed military coup reached new heights on Wednesday, as the government decreed the shut-down of 131 media outlets. The government has also issued arrest warrants for 89 journalists since the beginning of the week.

“Three news agencies, 16 TV channels, 23 radio stations, 45 papers, 15 magazines, and 29 publishers will be shut,” the BBC reports.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had already demonstrated himself to be against a free press in Turkey prior to the coup, many observers note.

The latest crackdown is “on media outlets and journalists [the government] accuses of being linked to the Fethullah Gülen movement, which it blames for the foiled military coup,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, Turkey director at Human Rights Watch. “In the absence of any evidence of their role or participation in the violent attempt to overthrow the government, we strongly condemn this accelerated assault on the media, which further undermines Turkey’s democratic credentials.”

International journalism advocacy groups have widely condemned the purge. AP reports: