Journalist from pro-government daily fired over TV comments

ISTANBUL

Murat Aksoy was among daily Yeni Şafak's liberal voices.

A journalist from daily Yeni Şafak has been fired over comments critical of the government during a live TV broadcast on Jan. 10. 

Murat Aksoy, who worked as a columnist, interviewer and editorialist for Yeni Şafak, which has adopted a well-known pro-government stance over the years, announced his dismissal in a message posted on Twitter on Jan. 11.

“A necessary note after calls and Twitter messages: The first piece of news [of my firing] broke last night. It was not true then, but it became true today. May it go well,” Aksoy said. 

In another tweet, he indirectly denied being regretful for engaging in the dangerous exercise of expressing his opinion. 

News of the firing came after Aksoy appeared on a daily news insight show on private broadcaster CNNTürk, presented by Cüneyt Özdemir. On the show, Aksoy strongly criticized the government’s handling of the recent corruption scandal.

“The state has collapsed and the government has not been able to handle the crisis well,” Aksoy said, using unusually harsh words for a Yeni Şafak writer. 

Özdemir himself took to Twitter to slam Aksoy’s dismissal with an ironic tweet declaring: “Advanced democracy!” 

Yeni Şafak blends writers close to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) with slightly more liberal voices such as Ali Bayramoğlu, Markar Esayan and Aksoy.