It was predicted that the Turkish media would be even more restricted after the election victory of President Erdoğan.
In Turkey, an investigation has been launched into the Sunday election coverage of almost all independent or opposition television channels.
The state agency RTÜK, which oversees the content of Turkish television and radio broadcasts, announced the matter today on its Twitter account.
The agency said it launched an investigation based on countless viewer complaints. According to the complaints, the television stations had given space in their broadcasts to “derogatory, mocking or attacking” speeches.
In particular, the announcement highlighted a well-known journalist Çiğdem Toker commentary on the Turkish Fox channel. According to the agency, Toker had stated, among other things, that democracy is not only about holding elections or voting.
Several experts had predicted that the media would be even more cramped in Turkey if there was a sitting president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan win the election. Erdoğan won the election with about 52 percent of the vote, while his challenger leading the opposition coalition Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu votes remained at about 48 percent of all votes.
Also representative of the Finnish Middle East Institute Foundation Anu Leinonen predicted increased political pressure on STT if Erdoğan wins.
– Little by little, the screw is expected to tighten even more in relation to non-governmental organizations, the media and the remaining opposition media, he said before the second and decisive round of the elections on Sunday.
Leinonen also believed that lawsuits against opposition politicians would increase.
Before the first round of the elections on May 14, opinion polls had shown that Kılıçdaroğlu had a clear lead over Erdoğan, but the situation turned upside down.
During the election campaign, Erdoğan accused the coalition of six opposition parties led by Kılıçdaroğlu as “supporters of terrorists” because the Kurdish HDP party expressed support for the opposition in the presidential election. Kılıçdaroğlu responded with accusations of corruption, among other things, and vowed to hold Erdoğan and his inner circle accountable for wrongdoing if he wins.
The story was updated and supplemented throughout at 1:55 p.m.