How did the SETA report that profiled journalists affect international media organizations in Turkey?

The report titled "The Turkish Extensions of International Media Organizations," prepared by SETA, a research institution that is the apple of the Erdoğan government's eye, caused a huge uproar when it was published in July 2019. These reactions were justified to the fullest extent...

The authors of the report viewed the "Turkish extensions of international media organizations as the most important component of the opposition media" and the journalists working there as "certain people who have infiltrated Turkey."

Although it appeared academic, the report, which was far from scientific or objective, targeted BBC Turkish, DW Turkish, Voice of America, Sputnik Turkey, Euronews Turkish, Independent Turkish, and CRI Türk, as well as the Turkish citizens working at these organizations, one by one. The journalists' social media posts and private lives were scrutinized in minute detail.

In order to humiliate local and foreign journalists working for international media organizations and portray them as "agents of influence," even their non-journalistic activities were placed under a magnifying glass, and there was no hesitation in distorting their posts and news reports.

As Murat Nişancıoğlu from the BBC emphasized in his article, even the word "extensions" in the title of the report gave enough of an idea about the seriousness of the report and how prejudiced the authors were against journalists.

The Journalists Union of Turkey and the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA) filed a criminal complaint regarding the report, but as expected, they did not get any results. The prosecutor's office, which evaluated the report as being "within the scope of freedom of expression," issued a decision of non-prosecution. Then, the report was forgotten.

In the six years that have passed, how has this report prepared by SETA affected the activities of international media organizations in Turkey? How did the AKP government implement the report of SETA, which it tasked with functioning as an institution that creates strategy and policy?

I pursued these questions and gathered developments regarding international media organizations. Because I believe that recording this in media history, instead of erasing it from our memory as if the report never existed, is necessary and valuable for the future.

THE GAINS OF THOSE WHO WROTE THE REPORT

The real winner of the report was İsmail Çağlar, the Director of Media Studies at SETA, who held the first signature on the report. The book titled "Press Freedom in Turkey," which Çağlar prepared together with Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun and Yeni Şafak writer Turgay Yerlikaya, was published in 2016. At that time, he was working as an academic at Istanbul Medeniyet University.

After the publication of the SETA report, he moved to the Istanbul University Faculty of Communication; a while later, he became an associate professor. He started writing for the Takvim newspaper. He was appointed as a member of the General Assembly of the Press Advertisement Agency (BİK), representing the Presidency.

In the days when the report was published, SETA General Coordinator Burhanettin Duran was also promoted to Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs over time. Nebi Miş took his place; like Duran, Miş also started writing columns for the Sabah newspaper.

It is not surprising that SETA is so intertwined with the Sabah and Takvim newspapers. Because Serhat Albayrak, the CEO of Turkuvaz Media Group, also serves as the president of the SETA Foundation.

CONDITIONS OF THE PERIOD WHEN THE REPORT WAS PUBLISHED

2019, when the SETA report was published, was a year in which international media organizations' interest in Turkey increased. The report stated, "Recently, there has been a visible increase in the number and content of news from the Turkish-language channels of Western media outlets."

The report ignored the fact that Voice of America (VOA), Deutsche Welle (DW), and BBC Turkish had been partners of TRT Radio and later TRT for years.

However, the BBC, DW, Sputnik Turkey, and VOA had started broadcasting years ago. Beijing Radio, which had been broadcasting since 1957, had also taken the name CRI Türk as of 2016 and expanded its broadcasts as a radio and news site.

Independent Turkish was added to these organizations in April 2019. Then, +90, a YouTube platform created under the leadership of DW, became operational. The BBC, France 24 (F24), and VOA also contributed to the +90 project.

The SETA report kept CRI Türk and Independent Turkish separate from the other organizations on the grounds that they "painted a pluralistic picture" and "reflected the different colors of Turkey." When mentioning CRI Türk, it was commented that "it has been observed that a news language opposed to the current government is adopted in the news of channels other than CRI Türk."

During the period when the SETA report was prepared, Turkey was seen as a "high-risk country" for journalists and journalism. In the "Media Pluralism Monitor" conducted by the European University Institute (EUI) in 2018-2019 and published in 2020, Turkey was characterized as the "riskiest country for journalists and journalism" among the European countries examined in terms of freedom of expression, the right to access information, professional standards of journalism, and the independence, influence, and reach of the media.

WORKING CONDITIONS OF FOREIGN JOURNALISTS

Although it did not directly and immediately affect foreign media organizations in Turkey and the local and foreign journalists working there, the report had significant consequences over time. This is because the report reflected the AKP government's view of international media, or rather, critical and independent journalism.

First of all, the working conditions of journalists working in the organizations mentioned in the report were restricted. Political actors in power, and especially the bureaucracy, tended to stay away from and not communicate with journalists working in these media organizations.

Of course, the pressure was not limited to local and foreign journalists working in the institutions targeted in the SETA report. Over time, it became increasingly difficult for foreign journalists to work in Turkey. News and articles that immediately labeled foreign journalists who produced critical news and analysis as "agents" never ceased in the pro-government media.

In addition, problems regarding accreditation also increased. Even those who were accredited found it difficult to follow President Erdoğan's events. They were not allowed to follow press conferences at the airport and ask the kind of questions Erdoğan did not like, as they used to. Being characterized as "agents" with indirect expressions in the report also limited journalists' access to news sources.

Let me give a few examples of the obstacles foreign journalists have faced in Turkey since the publication of the report. Dutch journalist Frederike Geerdink was deported in 2022, first from the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq and then from Turkey. In the same year, RTL Nieuws employees Olaf Koens and Pepijn Nagtzaam, who came to Edirne to report on refugees pushed from Greece to Turkey, were tried on charges of entering a military forbidden zone. Evangelos Areteos, a writer for the Greece-based Real newspaper who had been living in Turkey for eight years, was also deported solely because of his critical articles.

Greek journalists Kyriakos Finas, Victoras Antonopoulos, and Konstantinos Zilos faced obstruction from Diyanet (Presidency of Religious Affairs) personnel on the grounds that they were filming a newly opened mass grave in Antakya after the earthquake. Their confiscated equipment was later returned broken.

Belgian journalist Chris Den Hond was denied entry to Turkey last March and sent back from Istanbul airport. The latest example of the detention of journalists working for foreign media organizations was the detention of Yasin Akgül, who works for the French News Agency (AFP) and was filming the protests in Saraçhane this year, from his home. After being detained for two days, he was released along with seven other journalists who were detained and arrested on the same day.

These journalists were punished in advance...

JOURNALISM AS A SUBJECT OF DIPLOMATIC BARGAINING

Swedish journalist Joakim Medin was also detained on March 27 while entering Turkey to cover the Saraçhane protests that began after the removal of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu from office, and was arrested a day later. He was held in prison for 49 days.

The charges against Medin were "membership in an armed terrorist organization" and "insulting the president." The "evidence" of the crime consisted of articles he wrote for a news site in Sweden, a rainbow flag used in an article, and images of an Erdoğan effigy hanging upside down.

It is interesting, but what ensured Medin's release was the routine appeal made by MLSA! Moreover, there were still months until the first hearing of the second case. Somehow, Medin's sudden release coincided with two days after Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard met with Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, whom she met in Warsaw on May 8, at the NATO Meeting in Antalya on May 14-15!

If remembered, in 2018, Deniz Yücel, the Turkey representative of the German newspaper "Die Welt," was arrested on charges of "making propaganda for an organization" and "inciting the public to hatred and hostility," and a lawsuit was filed against him. News was published that the meetings of German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel with President Erdoğan twice were effective in the release of Deniz Yücel, who was imprisoned for about a year.

To be frank, the arrest and release of foreign journalists in our country are now a matter of diplomatic bargaining. Of course, no official comes out and gives information about the diplomatic contacts and bargaining in this process. The media cannot reach information about what is behind the scenes, but what is happening is obvious.

Let me add without forgetting, Joakim Medin, like Deniz Yücel, returned to his country immediately by private plane on the day he was suddenly released...

DW TURKISH

In February 2022, RTÜK (Radio and Television Supreme Council) made a decision and imposed a licensing requirement for the Turkish-language broadcasting departments of Voice of America (VOA), Deutsche Welle (DW), and Euronews, which were targeted in the SETA report. The three international media organizations were given 72 hours to obtain a license.

In fact, the "regulation on the presentation of broadcasting services from the internet environment," which RTÜK based its licensing requirement on, covers radio and television broadcasts made from the digital environment. For audio and visual broadcasts made from the internet environment to be accepted as "radio and television broadcasting," there is a condition that it must be "broadcasting dedicated to transmitting radio and television services from the internet environment."

Since there is no "broadcast flow schedule" in the visual broadcasts of VOA, DW, and Euronews, which RTÜK imposed a license on, they cannot be considered as broadcasts dedicated to television. However, despite this, RTÜK tried to bring news sites under its control as if they were doing television broadcasting by forcing the provisions of the law and regulations.

DW, which reacted strongly to the RTÜK decision, refused to apply for a license on the grounds that "obtaining a license would make it possible for the Turkish government to censor editorial content." Upon this, RTÜK applied to the court and imposed an access ban on DW's news site as of June 30, 2022. Despite this, DW, which did not make an attempt for a license, did not get any results from the judicial process it took to the Constitutional Court.

Access to DW's alternative address, www.dwturkce.com, was also blocked. The company, whose work permit was not renewed, also closed down. Employees were no longer insured or socially protected. They continued to work like freelancers. Of course, the staff also shrank.

They were also subjected to an accreditation ban; they had trouble following official meetings. DW Turkish reporter Alican Uludağ was also investigated due to his news on the "Bahçeli crisis in the judiciary."

However, despite the access ban, the Turkish service of DW persistently continued its broadcasts. Its broadcasts could be accessed via VPN for a long time. Recently, the site dwturkce1.com started broadcasting, but since there are no video bulletins on this site, they were saved from RTÜK's wrath once again.

Voice of America (VOA)

Voice of America (VOA) is also among the international media organizations that RTÜK imposed a licensing requirement on. Like DW, VOA resisted RTÜK's decision by not applying for a license.

Upon this, an access ban was imposed on VOA's news site as of June 30, 2022. Access to the site became impossible without using a VPN.

It also became difficult for VOA reporters to work in the field. MHP Chairman Devlet Bahçeli snapped at VOA reporter Yıldız Yazıcıoğlu, who asked a question about the murder of former Ülkü Ocakları President Sinan Ateş, saying, "Mind your own business." MHP Deputy Chairman İsmail Özdemir also accused Yazıcıoğlu of "acting with the air of an agent provocateur"; he said, "The 'permanent' employee at VOA, which is at the head of the US's propaganda tools, has revealed her true intention." Party members did not refrain from making posts targeting and insulting Yazıcıoğlu.

VOA stopped all its news flow for the first time in its 83-year history on March 15, 2025, with a decree by President Trump, and 49 language services, including VOA Turkish, were completely closed. All units, including news centers, were emptied; while those working at the center were put on indefinite leave, contract employees were fired with an email on the night of March 16.

About 600 journalists working on contract for different language services in different countries around the world, like VOA Turkish in Turkey, also became unemployed.

BBC TURKISH

The BBC Turkish Service also cooperates with NTV in Turkey, and some of its programs were broadcast there as well. However, when the "World Agenda" program was not broadcast in 2013 as part of the Taksim Gezi Park protests, it announced that it had suspended its partnership with NTV; shortly after, the cooperation was completely canceled. Peter Horrocks, Director of the BBC Global News Division, stated in his statement that "any interference with the BBC's broadcasting is unacceptable.”

After the SETA report, a statement was made from the BBC: "The BBC rejects all accusations in the SETA report. The 'profiling' of journalists is absolutely unacceptable.”

However, BBC Turkish, which does not publish video news on its website, was not affected by the condition of applying for a license that RTÜK brought for VOA, DW, and Euronews.

One of the developments in the following years that expressed the AKP government's dissatisfaction with BBC broadcasts was that the then-Minister of Interior, Süleyman Soylu, described BBC Turkish as a "disinformation channel" in a TV program. In 2021, what angered Soylu so much was the news titled "What is being discussed in the government about Sedat Peker's allegations?" by BBC Turkish.

Finally, Mark Lowen, the reporter who followed the Saraçhane rally in Istanbul and the subsequent protests for the BBC, was detained on the grounds that he was "conducting journalistic activities without an accreditation application"; he was also arbitrarily deported immediately on the charge of being a "threat to national security and public order.”

The interesting part was that Mark Lowen was one of the names targeted first in the Yeni Şafak newspaper and then in the SETA report. He was the BBC's Istanbul correspondent at that time, and he had been transferred from Istanbul to Rome some time after the report was published.

Since he was deported immediately, it was clear that he was not wanted to report from Istanbul again.

EURONEWS TURKISH

Euronews, which is shown as the European equivalent of CNN, is defined as a "pan-European television news channel reaching 145 million people worldwide.”

Euronews, a Europe-based broadcasting organization, was founded in 1993; it broadcasts in 13 languages, including Turkish. Euronews started Turkish broadcasts in 2010 after a partnership was established with TRT. However, upon Euronews entering into partnerships with private companies and the change in share distribution, the license agreement it made with TRT was canceled by the Council of Ministers' decision in December 2016, and joint broadcasts were stopped in January 2018.

Upon the EU reducing funds in 2021, news emerged that Euronews' Turkish and Italian services would be closed, but these were denied. However, later, a downsizing was carried out in the staff.

In 2022, Mário David, the father of Pedro Vargas David, who bought Euronews, is a former MP of the center-right European People's Party in Portugal and a long-time partner, advisor, and friend of Hungary's autocratic leader Victor Orban. It was also alleged that Orban provided financial support for Pedro Vargas David, the CEO of Alpac Capital, to buy Euronews, and that Orban aimed to reach the power of propaganda that would influence the European Union public opinion through this channel.

In 2022, RTÜK issued a license warning to Euronews Turkish as well as Voice of America (VOA) and DW. However, Euronews removed the video tabs that were interpreted as TV broadcasting, so RTÜK withdrew the license decision; the news site also continued its broadcast.

The SETA report affected Euronews Turkish more than other foreign broadcasting organizations. Euronews Turkish, which broadcasts from Lyon, had started to have a representative in Istanbul about six years ago, but it was working with remote freelance journalists. Last year, it was decided that the Turkish service would be in Turkey, and a new office was opened in Istanbul.

With the move, the editorial staff also changed completely. Bureau Chief Emre Başaran, who was transferred from the Anadolu Agency, formed a new team. They can conduct exclusive interviews with both CHP Chairman Özgür Özel and Communications Director Fahrettin Altun. They have not yet been able to change the cliché of "Turkish official speaking to Reuters" to "Turkish official speaking to Euronews," but they are in good relations with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Directorate of Communications.

The fact that Turkey's former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and EU Ambassador Faruk Kaymakcı visited Pedro Vargas David and announced that they discussed "Euronews broadcasting policies" and "the Turkish channel and cooperation opportunities planned to be operational within 2025" was remarkable in terms of demonstrating the stage the rapprochement between Ankara and Euronews has reached.

INDEPENDENT TURKISH

70 percent of the shares of the UK-based newspaper The Independent belong to Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev, and the remaining 30 percent belong to the Saudi Research and Marketing Group (SRMG). It was announced in 2018 that news sites would be opened in Turkish, Arabic, Urdu, and Persian in accordance with the license agreement made between the two groups. First, Arabic broadcasts started. The Turkish news site went live on April 16, 2019.

However, in addition to being targeted in the SETA report, Independent Turkish was also affected by the filing of a lawsuit against 20 Saudis due to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the consulate in Istanbul. When the Saudis imposed an access ban on the websites of AA and TRT Arabic, the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) in Turkey retaliated by blocking some news sites originating from that country; it also imposed an access ban on Independent Turkish (Indyturk), accepting it as Saudi-capitalized. The pro-government media supported this blocking decision, which was taken on May 3, 2020, with headlines such as "Indyturk, which signed operation news against Turkey, was closed by BTK decision.”

In fact, the British media watchdog Ofcom had decided that the purchase of shares in the companies publishing The Independent by a Saudi investor did not affect the newspapers' broadcasting policy regarding Saudi Arabia. The newspaper had published critical reports about the Jamal Khashoggi murder.

While applying to the judiciary against the access ban, an attempt was made to continue broadcasting by making link changes. But access to those links was also blocked. The blocking continued until relations between the two countries improved. BTK lifted the access ban on January 21, 2022. Since that day, the site has continued to broadcast, and it cannot be said that there has been a change in its broadcasting line.

However, since the Saudi financier cut the budget after these developments, Indyturk continues its life with a narrower staff and a lower profile than planned.

RISKIER, MORE LIMITED

The government had taken a step back from the "influence agent" regulation, which contains great danger for critical journalism, upon the reactions of professional organizations. But the risk of bringing the legal regulation that would easily serve to accuse local and foreign journalists working in international media organizations, especially those targeted in the SETA report, of being "influence agents" back to the agenda has not completely disappeared...

Of course, even if that law has not been passed, Turkey is turning into a more risky and limited field of work for foreign journalists and local journalists working in international media organizations every day. Foreign journalists based in Turkey have to cooperate more with the Directorate of Communications so that their press cards and work permits, which are required to be renewed every year, are not suspended.

Fewer foreign journalists are coming to follow social events and conduct research, except for international meetings such as the Russia-Ukraine peace talks; those who make critical news about Turkey mostly prefer to research remotely. This is how they avoid the risks.

The AKP-MHP government, which has succeeded in making a single perspective dominant in the country's media, never gives up its efforts to put the Turkish services of the international media into a similar mold. It does not care about criticisms or reactions either. Every positive news about Turkey and, of course, the government that appears in the international media is met with praise, but when it comes to critical news about the government, especially President Erdoğan, that media outlet and journalist are immediately labeled.

In short, the SETA report is actually in practice. But it is also very clear that the SETA report only affected the working conditions and methods of the international media organizations it targeted. It could not divert their journalistic styles or broadcasting lines. They continued and continue to publish news about Turkey and especially the government in accordance with their own principles.

In this sense, the report was not successful, and it limited the movements of the leading names of the government, especially Erdoğan, in the international media; it reduced their visibility.

This report became one of the focal points in the international media's view of the government...