A government move to seize Halk TV, Turkey’s most-watched news station, was designed to divert attention from a multibillion-dollar investment fund scandal that has implicated figures close to the ruling party, the station’s owner told Agence France-Presse.
In an interview in London hours after police raided the station’s İstanbul headquarters, pulled it off the air and installed a state-appointed administrator, Halk TV owner Cafer Mahiroğlu was still reeling from the events.
It was 3:15 a.m. in London on Wednesday when he received a call saying Turkish police had surrounded the building and cut off broadcasts at the news station he has owned and run since 2005, which has become a prominent fixture in Turkey’s news landscape.
Police also detained four colleagues and seven of his close family members. Prosecutors said the operation was part of an investigation into Mahiroğlu over a series of alleged corruption offenses, accusations he dismissed as “baseless.”
Mahiroğlu said the real reason for the seizure was to divert public attention from a sprawling investment fund scandal involving allegations of market manipulation that has increasingly drawn in figures linked to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
The crisis has affected nearly half a million individual investors and involves funds holding assets worth roughly $17 billion.
In an environment where huge sums of money “have been siphoned off and smuggled abroad, they are trying to change the agenda by appointing a trustee to Halk TV,” Mahiroğlu said.
“This is an operation to overlook the theft of the Turkish people’s national wealth and the discussion of it, and to shift the agenda.”
Mahiroğlu said all his funds transfers were “clearly visible within the Turkish banking system” and urged authorities to “transparently disclose” his financial dealings along with reports prepared by Turkey’s Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK).
‘Very serious pressure’
The move against Halk TV comes as the space for independent and opposition media in Turkey has continued to shrink, with critical outlets facing fines, broadcast suspensions, access blocks and criminal cases against journalists.
It also comes amid a two-year crackdown on the political opposition that has seen hundreds of mayors and other elected officials detained or arrested, as well as a more recent campaign targeting Turkey’s LGBTQ community in which prosecutors sought the arrest of 162 people in the name of protecting family values.
For Mahiroğlu, Wednesday’s raid did not come out of the blue.
Halk TV had been under “very serious pressure” for a long time, he said, including repeated sanctions by Turkey’s broadcasting regulator and threats of closure over its critical coverage.
“But I didn’t want to believe they would go this far, that the voice of Turkish democracy, the most-watched station in Turkey, the people’s lifeline, would be cut off like this,” he said.
What was once unthinkable has become part of everyday reality in Turkey, he said.
“We are in a period where events we could never have imagined can happen. The bar has been raised so high, it’s very difficult to predict where the limit will be,” he said.
‘We will keep broadcasting’
The seizure of Halk TV came two weeks after authorities blocked the website and social media accounts of leading digital news outlet T24, citing “LGBT propaganda,” and a year after they took control of opposition broadcaster Tele1, appointing a trustee who removed its hard-news programming.
Tele1 remains on air, but its previous pro-opposition editorial line has been eliminated.
Mahiroğlu said efforts to silence critical media would ultimately fail.
“This station is a lifeline for the Turkish people. Efforts to silence media outlets with such a repressive system … have never succeeded,” he said.
“This station isn’t watched only by the opposition but by those who are against the opposition. Because it was a station that delivered real news in Turkey,” he said.
“I will fight with every legal means at my disposal,” he added.
“We will continue our broadcasts on YouTube and if possible, on other platforms. But above all, I have no intention of abandoning Halk TV.”
© Agence France-Presse
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