Turkey that gives the government the power to take down any downline content is doesnt like. It passed as damaging corruption allegations surfaced on the net has reinforced the suspicion held by many turks, that their government uses the law as i censorship tool. The recurring themes is the turkish journalists need to get on board and spread the good news. Theres plenty of news outlets loyal to him on the television side, and with local elections in a few weeks and a president ial round expected this august, the Prime Minister will count on those channels for some favorable coverage. In the second half of the program, an extended interview with one of the Prime Ministers former Communications Advisers at the akp. First we have the media story in turkey. Weve never had a Prime Minister who was as interested in Media Affairs ahe is. The Prime Minister has resorted to every imaginable pressure. Hes known foez exposed a system by the government, even during his sign with media krens soreship to the extent that mr. Erdogan has. Hes a skilled media operator. He knows in turkey and any other country taking on the media, sometimes even shooting the messenger can be smart politics. He crosses swords with the media repeatedly, whether its over what he calls a lack of coverage of his governments achievements. [ speaking in a Foreign Language ] reporter on the the coverage of the conflict with kurdish separatists. [ speaking in Foreign Language ] and erdogan is not above getting involved personally. He was watching the protests last year in istanbul when he called the channels editor. Erdogan took issue with the headlines on the news. It was accurate, but he didnt like it and wanted it changed. Translator he already following a progovernment line. The news editor also has a similar background. Its therefore impossible for bbbc style critical journalist to come out of the organization. They do cover the opposition activities with a news ticker. There must be at least this much for a minimum level of journalism, but the government cant stand at least this much journalism. We always thought some second adviser would call the newspaper or the police station. Now were finding out that, for instance, in this particular News Television station, they had a very close associate of the Prime Minister implanted to do nothing but krens oship, and that person was receiving his instructions from no other than mr. Prime minister, having studied krens censorship in turkey. This goes beyond the imagination. This is not a new concept. In turkey every government that came and gone has tried to influence Media Outlets. As far as erdogan is concerned hes suffered in the hands of the Media Outlets before he became Prime Minister. When he came to power, its only natural for him to actually desire having media out lets that will put out his ideas and policies. So if youre going to evaluate it from this angle, its by their standards a normal thing to happen in turkey. Its been happening since the foundation of the republic. That argument that this was the turkish way would be fine if turkey was consent to stand still, but its not. The erdogan government wants to move forward with the eu. They have standards for freedom of the press and theyve been issues since turkey applied for full membership in 1987. Antiterrorism legislation and loss that ban insults against turkishness have been used against those critical of the government. In february a new law was passed enabling the government to take down consent from the internet without first taking the matter to the courts. The law was being processed such as damaging material was leaking online relating to a Corruption Scandal that has seen several cabinet ministers resign and some of their family members arrested. This comes after the probe became public, and all the information is now flowing on the internet. So theres a strong speculation that the Prime Minister is taking all these measures because he wants to control the flow of information. Thats going to hurt him. Thats going to bring more ugly but real facts to daylight. This isnt something all of us havent felt the need for. Its been working for him for the last two and a half years. Thats in all aspects of the industry, and it came to the parliament before this socalled Corruption Scandal started. Now hes been debating to pass it through so that peoples privacy and a persons right to have invasion of the privacy is protected. Translator although the government claims this new bill is not about controlling content or freedoms, that is a lie. With this new bill, the power to pull content offline and take it away from the courts and given to the bureaucrats. Theyre shutting down morally inappropriate government or government. To be honest, i dont think the government has been sincere. I see this as an attempt to conquer the last fortress of the free and independent media. The new york based committee to protect journalists counts more reporters in prison in turkey than any other country ahead of china and iran. Many were jailed over their reporting of the kurdish separatist story, which is a delicate issue in turkey as evidence by a meeting Prime Minister erdogan called with news members in 2011 and fighting flared again. Journalists have told the listen post of reporters didnt much convincing, but some volunteered to go further than the government asked. Those who said no, the erdogan has lefverage with the media conglomerates. You need to follow the money. Its always the money. You have to follow the media. I used to be known as a balanced media outlet, and there have been a lot of news about the way sabah newspaper and sabah group are bullied by a number of businessmen that are close to the Prime Minister. The government has allowed them free access and privilege. Translator the group is a major player in banking and tourism. The other group is one of the Biggest Telecom operators and own a Petro Company and the bank. If you like at general air, theyre in the mining business. When you put it altogether, they account for 60 or 70 of all tv ratings and newspaper circulation. Media investment in turkey is the main issue. In turkey people blame the journalists, but its the people focusing on money and their positions. The ceos that dont want to lose power. Theyre diluting the he had to her yal content. The rest are their servants. Translator the turkish media are largely shaped by media moguls and their dmek economic interests. I dont look to the media for objective information. This is a fundamental issue in turkey. The main problem is theres no immediate or press whose sole aim is to inform the audience. With turkeys conglomerates providing a link between politics and the press, theyre the ones with relation in business business is crucial in an important election year. The akp faces local government polls later this month. If erdogan decides to run for president in the august election, his political future could be in the hands of many allies or growing number of enemies in turkeys media. Our Global Village voices now on Prime Minister erdogans relationship with the turkish news media. It was a state defender and big corporation. In the recent years since he became power, he encouraged the media, which they cant reflect the turkish people. Media companies always have Political Economic ties. These alliances came up in the 1990s when the business tycoons acquired Television Channels or newspapers. Theyre making it very vulnerable to government manipulation. Twenty five years ago, pan am flight 103 exploded in the skys above lockerbie. Only one man was convicted of the attack the major difficulty for the prosecution, that there was no evidence. Now a three year al jazeera investigation, reveals a very different story about who was responsible they refuse to look into this. So many people at such a high level had a stake in al megrahis guilt. Lockerbie what really happened . On Al Jazeera America the stream is uniquely interactive television. We depend on you, you are one of the voices of this show. So join the conversation and make it your own. The stream. On Al Jazeera America and join the conversation online ajamstream. Usually when a politician takes issue with news coverage, they dont get on the phone themselves, as Tayyip Erdogan wants to do and chew out a few editors. They have media that take care of. Media spokes people and strategists. That was his job, and he was a Television Journalist before trading the studio for the power and then returning to journalism. He writes a a political column now. He rejects the notion that turkeys Prime Minister is no supporter of flee dom of the press and is edging in the direction of the old ottoman empire. He says that Tayyip Erdogan is a democratic. He spoke to him about the new internet law and the structure problems in the media there and what he calls the turkish way. Thank you for joining me. Thank you for having me. You go a long way back with Tayyip Erdogan. As a leader he strikes me as being more direct in his involvement with the media. What is it in his background, do you think, that makes him this way . I dont think that it has anything to do with his back fwround at all, actually. Maybe my answer is going to disappoint you. As i said, its not unique to him. Its, to a certain extent, just the turkish way. It has to do with media powers, media politician relations in turkey. On the new internet law, which you support, you recently wrote internet liberalism has reached a new level. All countries have got to deal with this issue. All leaders occasionally have things written about them or nasty things said about them on twitter, facebook, or what have you. What about about turkey feels it needs to go further than other countries in shutting that down by taking the courts out of the equation and leave it up to the bureaucrats to take down the c con . Content . Let me put it this way. They have the right to get their personal privacy integrity protected by legal system, by the rule of law. We had problems in this regard. So there was a need for such a relation on the internet. It takes six to eight days to get a decision out from the court. So it is too late. I mean, once contact is circulated in the internet, once, you know, everyone views it, its too late to protect personal privacy. Thats not the view of the eu. The speaker of the Eu Parliament says this is a time where turkey needs more transparency and more freedom of expression, yet, the country is going in the other direction. I dont get the point. We are talking about abusive content and the need to protect personal privacy. Okay. Heres the point. We talk about this case. People on the outside were looking into turkey seeing a new internet law and a journalist deported. Someone we interviewed said even the shepherd in the mountain knows that it wasnt a visa issue that led the government to deport him. It was about his tweets. Why even pretend . Turks arent stewupid and know whats happening. Why make it about a visa, if your problem is what hes tweeting or covering. Youre sure hes not deported by visa. Thats the reason given. When is the last time you heard of a journalist being deported from turkey when the visa expired. When the government says its for that technical reason when its obvious what it is, than ankara sounds like beijing or moscow. Is that who you want to keep company with while applying with the eu . In this case, is his visa expired or not . Was he deported on the very same day, on the exact day and date that his visa expired, or a month later . I dont know, because i dont think the reason i dont know is because, like most turks, i dont think it has anything to do with his visa but everything to do with what hes tweeting. This is the only journalist that i know of who the Prime Minister has brought a personal criminal complaint against that i know of. Correct me if im wrong. He brought a personal criminal complaint him, and thats the jurmist deported because his visa has expired. If the Prime Minister feels that its an attack on him personally, he has a right to take the issue to the court. Im not aware of it at all, whether this is the case with sfwl eynola arent. I know the visa is expired, and this is the fact on the ground. No one denies it. Even zeynola, and i dont think anyone suggests that the government could overlook expiration of visa. It is their problem. Let they speak about it. Im not in their place to defend or contest anything. I understand. But you know how media works in turkey, because you worked in the office of the Prime Minister on the communications side. So you know how it works. On the Mainstream Media that we saw last summer in the protests that were just down the road in istanbul, but cnn turk has a documentary about penguins in antarctica on the air, which really seemed to take the turkish media problem to the absurd because the latin expression is to reduce the turkish media problem to absurdity. Your question is the question is its full of stereotypes. Its unbelievable. I did it put the tape on the air. What is wrong with putting penguins on the air. When you have tear gas on the streets in istanbul and demonstrators on the streets of istanb istanbul. When theres tears gas in london, do you show it 24 hours around the clock. When the london riots occurred a couple of summers ago, walltowall coverage from the beginning that got bigger. There were no penguins ornate documentaries. What i say doesnt matter. What happens is the turks descending in front of news channels like mtv demonstrating in front of mtv and turk tv saying, youve got to cover this country. And what happened was that the head of news at mtv, jim ivan, came out on day three and he said, youre right. We havent done the job. We have to do better. Now, hes no longer in his position. Do you think hes out because ntv failed to do its job initially or because he admitted it publicly and the owners didnt like it . Why dont you put this question, put this credible question to him in person . Okay. Let me ask you this. Do you agree with those people in turkey who say that the problem with turkish media is structural . That these megaconglomerates that have big contracts with government, that there is a conflict of interest, and that they will never be as critical of the people theyre doing business with and who are writing them the checks as normal news organizations would be in any democracy . It is not true. This is not unique to this government. This country, it is the same as the west. No, its not the same as everywhere. It occurs everywhere, but doesnt happen to the same degree everywhere. Okay. Lets say that we can discuss only the difference between here and anywhere else. Correct . Yes. Okay. Now, so lets put it correctly. Theyre all causes to support the government. Or to try to get along with governments in good terms. Or to take positions against no. Just cover the news. Not take a position again and just cover the news or play it straight. Or cover the news as you put it. Play it straight. It is not that clearcut. Its not that clearcut. I mean, come on. Come on. Were talking about transparency and your thoughts should be transparent. Consider this the news of the day plus so much more. We begin with the government shutdown. Answers to the questions no one else will ask. It seems like they cant agree to anything in washington no matter what. Antonio mora, Award Winning and hard hitting. Weve heard you talk about the history of suicide in your family. Theres no status quo, just the bottom line. But, what about buying shares in a professional athlete . Real perspective, consider this on Al Jazeera America these protestors have decided that today they will be arrested these people have chased a president from power, theyve torn down a state. Whats clear is that people dont just need protection, they need assistance. You wrote in a column that when it comes to ideology and broadcasts, media, that i prefer an honest taking of sides to a Double Crossing by pretending to be neutral. Definitely, yes. Is that really the way forward for the media in turkey or in any country . I would prefer it this way. Dont cheat. Dont cheat your audience or pretend to be someone else. The same thing other countries allow if print you think should be on television . Yeah, i have read this report many times. Let them know about your ort yent takings. Heres my final question. You said that when opposition the akp had to deal with media that was progovernment and the Government Back then was calling editors the same way that erdogan is calling editors now or his people are calling editors now. Does the akp not run the risk that one day it will again find itself in opposition and that it will have wished at that point that it did fix this i call it a structural problem, call it an idea logical problem or a content problem and theyre on the outside looking in trying to phone those news organizations and no one is taking erdogans call. This is the point focused on. I said this is not unique. Its the situation in turkish media powers and media government relations, but i did not mean that i support it this way. I dont think that this is the right way to handle the Media Relations for any government. This is wrong, and its got to be changed. How do you do it . It is a change in mindsets. It is not just with laws, regulations. It is not about legal procedures. This about mindsets. But its not the government to be blamed for it or the owners either. Journalists and editorial staff. They take their orders. They are responsible for the outcome at the end of the day. We have to have a system as well, we have to develop a separatist system because were responsible for the final outcome. Its not good for any party, and its not good for my party or to the benefit of the International Owners or the International Journalists and not to the governments. Thank you for speaking to us on the listening post today. Thank you for having me. Next week we have another special with three stories on how new technologies are changing what you see in the news. Well see you then here at the listening post. What will next for columbias Peace Process after the man opposed to talking to rebels enjoys success in parliamentary elections. Hello, this is al jazeera live from doha. Also ahead malaysian Officials Say wreckage spotted in the South China Sea may not be from the missing airliner. 13 nuns held for months by rebels in syria are freed in a Prison Exchange deal. Rebuilding broken lives three years on from japans