PM’s ’it is none of your business’ discourse and press freedom

At a time like this, where such debate dominates the agenda, yet another issue, in fact one no less significant as far as our democracy is concerned seems to have escaped the attention of both the opinion leaders as well as the public at large. This problem issue is in fact the recent statement by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan which he delivered during a party convention in Trabzon last Sunday, revealing a tendency to limit the very habitat of the freedom of the press in Turkey. Said the Prime Minister regarding the appearance of news items about the haggling brought on by multiple candidates stepping forward during the city conventions of his party, "Those top selling papers, they announce it at the top, ’Problems in Istanbul, problems in Ankara’É ’Ankara convention postponed’É That’s why they are so delighted. Ankara convention is none of your business. Just let it beÉ We take care of ourselvesÉ"

No erroneous stories

These words by the Prime Minister is an indicator of the serious discomfort by news stories covering the competition taking place in the local conventions of his party, and the ensuing issues. We should mention at once that such stories appearing in the papers are not erroneous in any aspect. For instance, when two candidates stepped forward during the Istanbul city convention held about two weeks ago, party leadership weighed in with all it has got in favor of Aziz Babuşçu, while the other candidate, Metin Külünk has received a serious case of stonewalling. Certain problems were experienced in the course of the admittance of the Külünk supporters to the convention hall, to the point of incidents that were minor in nature. All in all, the Istanbul city convention has not been home to a rose garden without thorns. Likewise, it is also true that the city convention has been postponed in Ankara due to a potential haggling as a result of quite a few candidates aspiring for the chair position. What is more, reports of other candidates than those determined by the headquarters stepping forward in other city conventions, as well, are quite commonplace. All those are actually natural and healthy developments at a certain level for democracy, a system based on competition among candidates. AKP is the largest political party in Turkey. What could be more natural than people announcing their candidacy and entering into competition in a democracy?

However, it has become quite clear that the head of the AKP is not pleased at all by the emergence of candidates other than those preferred by him as well as by democracy within the party and favors a disciplinarian leadership style instead. Why are local conventions needed at all, if candidates receiving a nod by the sole selector at the headquarters shall be appointed? Would it be so that a feast is held within the party, and the delegates and members of the party may have a jolly good time? AKP reveals us the fact that they are, not unlike CHP and MHP, not quite that much different than those other major political parties where the headquarters wish to play an absolute dominant role in the city level administrations. This happens to be a system in which appointments made from the headquarters are presented as if they were actually elected during the convention and applauded, and indicates a state of "illusion" in terms of democracy.

Knock off democracy and autocracy

One problematic area within this issue is the reaction by the Prime Minister to the reporting of such developments by the papers, and grilling the journalists who do the reporting at a raised level of tone. One can not even think of democracy without the freedom of the press. The very essence of the freedom of press is the ability of the reporters to write about the political activities of the parties without fear and hesitation. Hagglings that take place in the course of party conventions, situations brought on by competition should be reported freely by the media. This is the color, the flavor of democracy. A prime minister does not have the right to say "the convention is none of your business" to the reporters in any real democracy. Such behavior constitutes an intervention into the public’s right to know the truth as well as the right to be informed. Government systems where prime ministers feel they have the right to say "the convention is none of your business" to the press may not be called a democracy, but a fake democracy at best. Such regimes are called "autocracy" today. We can not just chalk up Erdoğan’s such words to a slip of the tongue unfortunately. He has voiced quite a few examples of this very point of view in the past.

Therefore, the "my convention is none of your business" phrase is an expression of a yearning for a media kept under control. In this context, we should suffice with a reminder of the following words he spoke to the journalists who had been reporting on certain problems in the hospitals this past December: "Another duty of the media is checks and balances. You contact the relevant ministry as part of your duty, and if the issue is not given due attention, come and call up on the prime minister. If the prime minister is irresponsive, then writeÉ"

Who is in fact how much of a democrat?

As indicated by just this statement alone, Prime Minister Erdoğan is considering himself as the authority on what the press may and may not print, and proposes a preliminary control system even. It is because he attributes himself such authority that he is able to object to the appearance of news stories regarding the local party conventions. In other words, what is before us here is an internalized point of view.

This point of view of course provides a clue about how genuine Erdoğan’s qualities as a democrat are, as well his commitment to full EU membership. At a time when the EU has the freedom of press under scrutiny in advance of the next progress report due in autumn, the Prime Minister’s words do in fact represent an illiberal mindset. In order to believe in the true sincerity of those who set out to limit the jurisdiction of the military court in the name of a more democratic world, we do need to see that they respect the freedom of the press first.



Sedat Ergin is editor-in-chief of daily Milliyet in

which this piece appeared on Thursday.