Press Council files complaint against caretakers in Koza ?pek media group

Turkey's Press Council has filed a complaint against a penal court judge who assigned a caretaker panel to the management of Koza ?pek Group's media outlets.

The council said in a statement on Nov. 4 that it had filed a complaint at the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) against the prosecutor and judge of the Ankara 5th Court of Peace over their decisions to transfer the management of the Kanaltürk television channel and the Bugün TV channel to a caretaker team, noting that the caretakers were patently not objective. 

The petition said the developments were a violation of the international agreements that Turkey is party to.

"An investigation is requested, as penal court judge Yunus Süer clearly violated the freedom of opinion and failed to do his duty to assure fundamental rights and freedom and security of law," said the petition, referring to decisions of the European Court of Human Rights and the Constitutional Court.

"The operation led by the caretakers has started to affect, de facto, the editorial preferences of the media outlets in question. The context of the assignment is ambiguous and the panel has censored the publications," said the petition.

On Nov. 3, 58 employees working at dailies Bugün, Millet and television stations Bugün TV and Kanaltürk, which are owned by the Koza ?pek Media Group, were forced to take mandatory leave from work following a police raid against the group's headquarters in late October. When they attempted to return on Nov. 3, however, they were not permitted into the media group's office building in Istanbul's ?i?li district.

The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office on Oct. 26 ordered the Koza ?pek Group to be placed under the management of a trustee panel while...