Authoritarian and Populist Influences in the New Media by Sai Felicia Krishna-Hensel

Author:Sai Felicia Krishna-Hensel [Krishna-Hensel, Sai Felicia]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780367884406
Google: WORkzAEACAAJ
Goodreads: 49347476
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-12-12T00:00:00+00:00

The re-distribution of state-seized media assets through the Savings Deposit and Insurance Fund (TMSF)

The most direct and important mechanism in restructuring media ownership in Turkey in the last 14 years has been, however, the redistribution of state-seized media assets to pro-government businessmen and entrepreneurs. The Savings Deposit and Insurance Fund (Tasarruf Mevduatı Sigorta Fonu, TMSF), which has the authority to appropriate and resell the property and liquidity of indebted businesses, has on several occasions seized control of media organizations whose parent companies have been in financial difficulty and resold them to companies sympathetic to the government. The first incident in this regard concerned Star Media Group, which included Star Daily, which was founded in 1999 by Cem Uzan, a businessman and the leader of one of the main opposition parties, the Young Party (Genç Parti), which received a critical 7.5% of the popular votes in 2002. After the appropriation of Star Daily by TMSF in 2004, the paper was first filled with pro-AKP writers and editors, and then sold to Turkish Cypriot businessman Ali Özmen Safa in 2006, who transferred the company to Ethem Sancak the next year. Sancak, a businessman and entrepreneur and a member of the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) Internal Party Democracy Commission, added a news TV channel, Kanal 24, to the group in 2007. Sancak’s Star Media group has changed hands several times between 2009 and 2014 and eventually was totally re-acquired by Sancak in September 2014; he openly admits that he reentered the media business to support PM Tayyip Erdoğan (HDN, November 22, 2013). Sancak also bought Cukurova’s Turk Media Group, which was seized by the TMSF, including the 2 daily newspapers, Akşam and Güneş, and news broadcaster SkyTurk 360, in November 2014.

Calık Holding, another pro-government business group primarily involved in the energy, construction, finance and telecoms sectors, entered to the media sector through a similar mechanism in 2008. The TMSF seized Daily Sabah and the ATV news channel from Dinc Bilgin in April 2007, and then next year sold the group to Calık Holding, the CEO of which was Erdoğan’s son-in-law. The media group, renamed Turkuaz Medya in 2008, was sold for $1.1 billion, but Calik Holding was only able to raise $450 million and the rest was financed by public funds taken as loans from 2 state-owned banks, Vakifbank and Halkbank. Loans of $375 million each were the largest granted by the either bank. In December 2013, Calik sold the media properties to another pro-government business group, Kalyon Group, which has interests in the energy and construction sectors and which was a member of a consortium that won the public tender to construct Istanbul’s newest airport in May 2013. The leaks of December 25, 2013 revealed that a pool of money was created through the contribution of pro-government business groups active in construction to buy the ATV-Sabah media group. In exchange, these businessmen were allegedly promised that they would receive favours on future public tenders, such as a $2 billion addition

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