Cyprus-Forum.com

[DT.]

since all everyone seems to be doing is quoting pieces from newspapers to show who's in a worse position then here you go.

Turkish army bars ‘biased’ Turkish Cypriot media from exercise
By Simon Bahceli

THE TURKISH military took a swipe at the Turkish Cypriot administration yesterday by barring media outlets sympathetic to the leadership from covering a search and rescue exercise off the northern coast.

The annual event is popular with the Turkish and Turkish Cypriot media, and is traditionally covered by all outlets regardless of political leanings.

“The army is trying to punish the AKP [Justice and Development Party] government in Turkey, and is trying to find their allies. And what better ally is there than the CTP [Republican Turkish Party] and Mehmet Ali Talat?” Dr Ahmet Sozen, head of the Cyprus Policy Centre think-tank at the Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.

Tensions between the Turkish military and the ruling AKP are at an all-time high as the country heads to an early election on July 22. The election was sparked by the constitutional court’s refusal to accept the AKP’s presidential candidate Abdullah Gul, who, under strong pressure from the military, was deemed too Islamic.

Yesterday’s snub, which included barring state-run Bayrak TV and top-selling daily newspaper Kibris, is the third run-in the military has had with the north’s administration this year.

In January, Turkish Cypriot leader Talat clashed with Turkish military Chief of Staff Yasar Buyukanit over his plans to open a crossing between Greek and Turkish Cypriot controlled Nicosia. And in March, the head of Turkish forces in Cyprus, Hayri Kivrikoglu berated Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Ferdi Sabit Soyer for failing to adequately display his party’s “Turkishness” at a party conference.

The latest military-civilian clash came to light on Tuesday when reporters turned up at a briefing about the air-sea rescue exercises only to find they had been barred from entering both the briefing and the exercises themselves.

A Bayrak TV reporter assigned to cover the event told other journalists an army official informed him he would not be allowed to enter because Bayrak TV had shown a bicommunally-produced documentary titled “Our Wall” earlier in the year.

He was also told that the army objected to Bayrak TV’s failure to display the Turkish and ‘TRNC’ flags in the corner of the screen during broadcasts.

As to why six newspapers and two other TV channels were also banned was less clear. According to the Bayrak TV reporter, the military official said only that they had not received “accreditation” from the military. The only clue, it seems, is that all the media outlets included in the barring are sympathetic to the current leadership.

Bayrak TV’s board of director’s head Vasfi Candan yesterday confirmed that the events had been brought to his attention, expressing shock at the military’s move. He told the Mail such action was “against the principles of press freedom”. He added that he was not sure of where the order had come from.

An angrier reaction came from the Turkish Cypriot Newspaper Journalist’s Union (KTGB) which issued a statement saying that for the military to decide which media outlets were tolerable was “completely unacceptable”.

“The army is sending a message to the world that the TRNC is completely under its control,” the statement added.

Head of the press union (BASIN-SEN) Kemal Darbaz described the barring of certain outlets as “the clearest sign yet of how far removed the security forces have become from the people”.

He added: “Whatever position these people hold, if they were not elected by the people, they have no say [on such issues]”.

Darbaz questioned where the order had come from, and warned that if it had come from high up in the military command, it could be a sign or more serious clashes to come.