Turkey's Opposition Parties Slam Probe Into Doğan Media Group

- Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) head Devlet Bahçeli and Republican People’s Party (CHP) Deputy head Bülent Tezcan have both condemned the investigation launched into the Doğan Media Group over news reports accused of “making terrorism propaganda.”

The oppression on media outlets, their employees and their owners waged by the current government has become unbearable, Bahçeli told reporters after a meeting at the MHP headquarters in Ankara.

He described the investigation launched against the Doğan Media Group for “making terrorism propaganda” and the recent police raid on Turkish magazine Nokta’s office building as “unjust” when asked what he thought about recent developments including the violent mob attacks on daily Hürriyet’s Istanbul office.

"None of these are right moves. Particularly the oppression that the current government has been using against the media, media employees and owners, is unbearable. However, God willing, Turkey will be relieved after Nov. 1" Bahçeli said.

Oktay Vural, a deputy head of the MHP's parliamentary group, criticized AKP deputy Abdürrahim Boynukalın, who gave a fiery speech in front of daily Hürriyet on Sept. 6, threatening journalists. "How can there be such a parliamentarian? He is threatening people" Vural said, inquiring whether any prosecutor had done anything regarding the threats.

"Their goal is to silence the media," he added.

CHP’s Tezcan, on the other hand, expressed strong criticism over the probes, saying “it is impossible to understand and admit this sort of [investigation].”

He described the investigation as “nothing but a slander and defamation campaign” against the Doğan Media Group.

The CHP also presented a motion to launch a parliamentary probe into recent attacks targeting daily Hürriyet. The motion said that the "lynch campaign" directed against daily Hürriyet, which is owned by the Doğan Media Group, started to target other media outlets, too.