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media comments they made on the story because they deemed them to be critical of Turkey's economy. The article was about the effects of a sharp decline in the Turkish lira and how authorities and banks were responding. The first hearing of the trial is scheduled for September 20.
Turkey has for three straight years been the world’s biggest jailer of journalists. In April, Turkey placed 157th out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index 2019 compiled by Reporters Without Borders, two places down on where it finished in the previous year’s ranking.
“Witch-hunt”. The country has seen the “witch-hunt waged by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government against its media critics... come to a head since an abortive coup in July 2016”, according to a short commentary issued with the ranking.
Last year, Turkey’s interior ministry said it had identified 346 social media accounts carrying posts about the exchange rate that it said created a negative perception of the economy, Reuters reported. It said it would take legal measures against them but did not specify what these would be.
In late March, Turkey’s banking watchdog said it had launched an investigation into JP Morgan and other banks over complaints it received after the lira plunged more than 4% in one day and the main share index fell sharply. The BDDK watchdog said it received complaints that a report JP Morgan published hurt the reputation of Turkish banks and triggered volatility in financial markets. The required “administrative and judicial processes” would be followed, it said. At the same time that the BDDK made its move, the Capital Markets Board of Turkey (SPK) also said it had launched a probe. The SPK said it had complaints that a JP Morgan report was “misleading” and caused speculation on the Istanbul bourse.
Interior minister accuses Turkish conglomerate Koc of lending plane to opposition candidate in Istanbul revote. Turkey’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu and Koc Holding, the country’s largest industrial group, are at loggerheads over Ekrem Imamoglu, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) candidate who won the Istanbul mayoral election but must face a controversial re-run of the poll after electoral officials annulled his victory because of alleged irregularities. Soylu claimed that Koc Holding allocated one of its private jets to Imamoglu for a visit to two provinces on the Black Sea coast last week. “I do not care if people criticise me for speaking out. But I see that something is going on. Those who allocated their hotel during the [2013] Gezi protests [to protesters] are allocating their jets... Koc gave its jet to him [Imamoglu],” Soylu said on June 8. Revisiting a well-worn theme put forward by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which aims to take back the Istanbul mayoralty from the CHP on June 23, the minister also suggested that those whom the party claims joined forces during the Gezi protests— including the foreign media and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)—were doing so again. Pro-government media have always claimed that Divan Hotel on Istanbul’s Taksim Square, owned and operated by Koc Holding, sheltered protesters at the height of the anti-government rallies during the Gezi Park events in 2013. Some government officials have made similar claims in the past but no legal action has ever been taken over the matter against Koc Group over the matter, seen as representative of the Western- minded business elite. Echoing Soylu, pro-government newspapers Sabah and Yeni Safak also ran stories about Koc Holding allocating a jet to Imamoglu, apparently suggesting that the conglomerate is secretly working against the government. Pro-government media outlets and officials from the AKP have previously accused Imamoglu of cooperating with the Gulenists. Ankara blames a Gulenist network and also the PKK for the failed 2016 coup attempt. Imamoglu has rejected the accusations. In the face of comments made by Soylu and reports in the pro-government media, Koc Holding issued a statement on Twitter on May 9. The holding company said Imamoglu used a private jet leased from Koc Holding’s Setair, which has been operating in the local aviation industry since 1990. The statement added that the private jet in
12 TURKEY Country Report July 2019 www.intellinews.com