Turkey’s broadcasting regulator fined two TV stations on Friday over coverage questioning government figures’ connections to an investment fund scandal, as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared the crisis under control.
The Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) fined Sözcü TV and Koza TV at the maximum rate of 3 percent of the previous month’s advertising revenue, citing violations of impartiality and accuracy requirements.
The crisis erupted in mid-September when investment funds, which pool money to buy shares and other assets, could not meet withdrawal requests amid investigations into suspected market manipulation.
The Capital Markets Board (SPK), Turkey’s securities regulator, ordered the liquidation of 131 funds managed by seven companies on September 17, requiring their assets to be sold to repay investors.
The funds had nearly half a million individual investors, although some have since received payments.
RTÜK cited allegations about Trade Minister Ömer Bolat’s investments and a Sözcü TV broadcast questioning photographs of ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) spokesman Ömer Çelik with a suspect in the investigation.
Koza TV was penalized over broadcasts questioning which political figures had yet to be identified and alleging involvement across the government.
RTÜK member Tuncay Keser opposed the penalties, arguing that punishing journalists for questioning the scandal would undermine press freedom and the public’s right to information.
The sanctions came as journalist Bahadır Özgür was released Friday with a travel ban and police reporting requirements after spending the night in custody on suspicion of violating the investigation’s confidentiality through his reporting.
Journalists Şaban Sevinç and Mustafa Balcı were jailed pending trial on October 9 on accusations of publicly disseminating misleading information, while İsmail Saymaz and Murat Ağırel were put under house arrest the following day.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has called for all four to be freed and for Turkey’s disinformation law to be abolished.
Speaking at an innovation event in İstanbul on Friday, Erdoğan identified three priorities: repaying investors, prosecuting those responsible and protecting the capital markets.
“We have brought the problem under control,” he said, adding that some payments had begun and others would follow the passage of legislation.
The repayment bill cleared parliament’s Planning and Budget Committee on Wednesday, with debate in the full legislature expected next week.
It would permit interim payments of up to 1 million Turkish lira, about $20,000, per eligible investor, based on their contributions after withdrawals are deducted.
Payments would depend on available cash, with smaller investors potentially receiving priority, and would come from fund assets and recovered money without Treasury funding.
The investigation has reached government figures, with former deputy agriculture and forestry minister Mustafa Aksu jailed pending trial Monday and former family minister Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya losing her AKP leadership posts and membership following allegations about her investments, which she denied.
The AKP and its ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), on Tuesday again rejected opposition demands for a parliamentary inquiry into political connections and regulatory failures behind the scandal.
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