Hürriyet editorial responds to President, PM

ISTANBUL

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the following during a speech at the SETA Foundation in Istanbul on April 25: “They put my photo and wrote a headline below it, saying a president who was elected by 52 percent of voters was sentenced to death, referring to Egypt President Mohamed Morsi. What does it mean? Everyone understands it. It means that I am next.”

The story that Erdoğan referred was published on the Hürriyet website on May 16 and only quoted Erdoğan, who said Morsi “had received 52 percent of the votes and had received a death sentence.” The words were published in the headline in brackets. The president’s photo was above this headline, as was his statement. 

The alleged connection never passed through the minds of Hürriyet’s editors.

Another point was a claim that Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu made a midnight appeal to Hürriyet not to publish a photograph showing Prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz, who was martyred by terrorists from the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C). 

An adviser of the prime minister called Hürriyet’s Ankara representative, Deniz Zeyrek, to convey this request. However, the phone call came long after the newspaper went to print, at around 2 a.m. The printing was largely completed by the time.

Hürriyet announces these facts to the public with respect.