The Listening Post

Turkey: Media showdowns and legal breakdowns

Is President Erdogan’s media face-off jeopardising rule of law in Turkey? Plus, the challenges of reporting on the EU.

On The Listening Post this week: Is President Erdogan’s showdown with the media jeopardising the rule of law in the country? Plus, from Brussels, the challenges of reporting on the European Union.

Turkey: The media crackdown and the legal breakdown

The government in Ankara isn’t mincing its words about the media. Journalists and news outlets within Turkey are fighting losing battles in the courts and outside the country and media personalities in Germany are facing lawsuits directly from President Erdogan’s office.

Talking us through the story are: Andrew Finkel, journalist; Alper Kaliber, associate professor of international relations at Istanbul Kemerburgaz University; Kadri Gursel, reporter at Cumhuriyet; and Halime Kokce, reporter at the Star newspaper.

On our radar

  • Six people, including three journalists, have been sentenced to death in Egypt for allegedly leaking state secrets to Qatar.
  • A searchable database of some of the Panama Papers, which were leaked last month, went live on the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism’s website.
  • Facebook is battling criticism after a report suggested that the site’s “trending” topics section is actively curated to suppress conservative news. 

Beyond borders: Reporting the EU

When it comes to reporting the European Union, the mainstream media rarely hits home with audiences. But there’s a new kid in town. POLITICO – the Washington, DC-based political news site – has landed in Brussels and is trying to shake things up. 

Talking us through the story are: Matthew Kaminski, editor at Politico Europe; Frédéric Simon, editor at Euractiv and Brussels correspondent at France 24; Susanne Fengler, professor of international journalism at the University of Dortmund and director at the Erich Brost Institute for International Journalism; and John Lloyd, contributing editor at the Financial Times and Senior Research Fellow at Reuters Institute.