ANKARA
Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan urged the media Thursday to take a clear position against all plots and unlawful acts that allegedly target the will of the Turkish people.
"It is vital for media to openly oppose all conspiracies aimed at the Turkish people's national will and the citizens themselves, and not take any part in illegalities," Akdogan said.
The deputy premier made the remarks at The Anadolu Agency’s headquarters in Ankara on the sidelines of a signing ceremony held to mark the Second Collective Labor Agreement between the AA and the Medya-Is Labour Union.
Newly appointed AA Director-General Senol Kazanci also attended the ceremony.
Akdogan said press freedom and press ethics should develop on the basis of democracy and rule of law.
He said media was the fourth pillar of democracy. "What matters is the content, the mission, and the role media plays," he said.
"A media that puts teeth in anti-democratic tendencies, applauds and promotes such practices, and works as a coup promoter cannot be the fourth power of democracy," he added.
"Whether you commit crime via the media or a press member commits the crime, it doesn't annihilate the crime itself," he said.
"No one is privileged within the system of law," he added.
The deputy premier's remarks come in the aftermath of Sunday's Istanbul-based police operation against senior media figures and police officers in 13 provinces across Turkey.
More than 20 suspects were taken into custody in the operation, including the editor-in-chief of Turkey’s Zaman daily, Ekrem Dumanli; chairman of Samanyolu Media Group Hidayet Karaca; producer Salih Aslan; director Engin Koc of Samanyolu TV, and Makbule Cam Alemdag, a scriptwriter of a TV series.
The detainees were accused of being allegedly affiliated with what the Turkish government described as the "parallel state," an alleged group of bureaucrats embedded in the country's institutions, including the judiciary and the police.
In December 2013, an anti-graft probe targeted a number of high-profile figures, including the sons of three former government ministers and leading Turkish businessmen.
The government had denounced the probe as a "dirty plot" constructed by the "parallel state."
Since then, hundreds of police officers have been detained on charges of eavesdropping on Turkey's top officials, disclosing highly sensitive information, forming and belonging to an organization to commit crime, violating privacy, illegally seizing personal information and the forgery of official documents.
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