Prosecutors in Turkey's Ergenekon trial are rounding up top military leaders.

In Quest of Fair Journalism in the Cyberspace: A Comparative Look at the American and Turkish Online Media Watchdogs

(Abstract)

The need for a fair press triggered the necessity for news media criticism both in Turkey and in the United States. Since the news media gradually became inadequate to fulfill their duties and responsibilities with the commercialization of the news and the global tendency towards monopolization in news corporations, media watchdogs became a vital component of news media, establishing its commitment to a professional code of ethics, monitoring and criticizing mainstream corporate media according to professional standards.

By Christine Ogan

Big Media and the War
When it comes to media choices for information about the war in Iraq, Turkey is luckier than a lot of other countries of equal size and equal level of economic development. At least 21 national daily newspapers circulate about four million copies, and a reported 3,500 local daily or weekly newspapers with circulations of between one and fifteen thousand supplement the national press. Added to that, more than 100 magazines are published, many of which are Turkish versions of international editions.

Each day now, someone says something even more incredible – even more unimaginable – about President Bush's obsession with war. Yesterday, George Bush was himself telling an audience in Cincinnati about "nuclear holy warriors". Forget for a moment that we still can't prove Saddam Hussein has nuclear weapons.

Aydin Dogan is one of Turkey's most formidable--and controversial-- businessmen. WHEN Necmettin Erbakan was sworn in as Turkey's first Islamist prime minister in 1996, he declared war on what he called the country's media cartel. A year later, he was forced out, amid accusations that he had sought to replace secular rule with an Islamist dictatorship. Turkey's anti-Islamist generals played the main role in ejecting Mr Erbakan from office.