Turkey being subjected to double standard by int’l media: Erdoğan

ANKARA

International media channels have been subjecting Turkey of having double standards by showing those “burning down the streets” as peaceful protestors, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, criticizing international media organizations on Dec. 1.

Speaking during the TRT Forum, Turkey’s state-run broadcaster’s English-based service, Erdoğan said that since the Gezi Protests in 2013, Turkey had suffered many injustices and double standards by international media organizations.

The president underlined that those “burning down the streets” are being shown as peaceful protestors in the international media.

Additionally, he said that members of separatist terror organizations, who are responsible for the death of hundreds and thousands of lives in Syria, were put on covers of the “so-called prestigious magazines” of the West.

“But when the same incidents take place in Europe’s different countries, those who attempted to teach us about the freedom of press then played ostrich,” he said.

“They ignored the yellow-vests in the center of Paris. They did not mention anything about the French police’s out of proportion interventions,” he added.

Digitalization must not fuel inequity

Erdoğan also warned about unchecked digitalization.

“With digitalization expanding the field of freedom, it should not lead to new inequalities, injustices, and marginalization,” he said.

“If seen as an area with no control, open to arbitrariness and outside of the law, digitalization will lead us directly to fascism,” Erdoğan warned.

On a recently proposed French security law, under fire for violating press freedom and hindering efforts to stop police brutality, Erdoğan criticized the proposal, saying, “International media kept silent in the face of France’s blockade on the media.”

France’s ruling party on Nov. 30 withdrew the proposed law, stating that the controversial sections of the law will be revised.

“It is very embarrassing for media outlets to carry the banner of Islamophobia and xenophobia,” Erdoğan said, likely referring to much-criticized cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad published by a French magazine.

“If discourteous attitudes shown under the cover of press freedom are not stopped, both Europe and all humanity will suffer,” he added.