Turkish PM Erdoğan continues harsh criticism of media

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at Justice and Development Party (AKP) group meeting in Parliament. DHA photo

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan today maintained his angry criticism toward a Turkish daily after it published the reported minutes of a Feb. 23 meeting between the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputies.

“Just as the media declares a place of freedom for itself, we are as free as them to express our feelings as the ones who take responsibility. We express our criticism outspokenly, but at the same time we stand against censure before them,” Erdoğan said in his Justice and Development Party (AKP) group meeting in Parliament today, implying daily Milliyet without mentioning them by name.

Erdoğan said journalists in Turkey were now freer than they had ever been but added that those who “insult” others would be prosecuted.

The prime minister also said “national issues” could be covered more sensitively, citing the press in the United States.

“Look at the [press] in the United States of America. There, the media succeeds in acting in a national manner on national issues,” Erdoğan said.

Erdoğan also said the media had created an atmosphere for “the terrorist organization [PKK] to breath” over the years.

Turkish daily Milliyet published the alleged talks of Öcalan two days after the “second meeting” on İmralı Island as part of the ongoing peace process to end three-decade-long conflict in the country between PKK and the Turkish Armed Forces.

The source of the leak was kept anonymous by the daily, but Erdoğan said he would soon reveal the names behind the breach.