The Turkish government tightly grips mass media within the country. With large degrees of censorship and the President controlling over 90% of the country's print and online media outlets, journalists' abilities to criticize the government and freely report are severely limited. Currently Turkey ranks 149/180 in the World Press Freedom Rank. If there was a sudden regime change in Turkey releasing the grips of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan over mass media which media sources could the Turkish people rely on during the transition?
Despite mostly being indirectly government-controlled, Turkey still has some independent media outlets free of business connections to the President. Two prominent independent television stations that could be relied on include: FOX Television and Halk Television. Both have received sanctions for criticizing the government but continue to be critical and provide relatively informative news to the Turkish public. If there were to be a regime change these two television channels would be able to report with the full freedom they desire and be able to quickly adjust to do so since they already employ heavily experienced journalists who desire press freedom.
Another possible outlet that could be explored during a regime change is YouTube. Many journalists in Turkey broadcast their opinions on current events through their own personal YouTube channels. Prominent journalist's youtube channels could be a reliable unbiased resource during a transition period.
If there were to be sudden regime change in Turkey independent television stations such as Fox and Halk that fight for journalist freedom could be a beneficial source to get unbiased coverage, along with journalists' individual platforms on mediums such as YouTube.
List of References
ft.com/…/3273aafc-4317-11e8-97ce-ea0c2bf34a0b
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/turkey-media-profile/
https://pomed.org/snapshot-media-in-turkey-why-it-matters-and-challenges-ahead/
October 30, 2022