Turkey's media reels after 'nightmare' of coup
ANKARA: Forced at gunpoint to read a statement by coup plotters and raided by rebel military forces, Turkey's media organisations were bruised by the drama of a coup but also played a role in ensuring it did not succeed.
A presenter with state-run TRT television had to read a statement late Friday from a group called “the Council for Peace in the Homeland,” which claimed to have superseded the regular Turkish armed forces and to have taken control in the country.
Another private channel was raided by rebel soldiers and forced to temporarily cut its broadcasts.
But television channels also played a role in facing down the coup, broadcasting messages from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urging his supporters to go out on to the streets and providing sometimes impressive coverage of the events as they unfolded.
“I read the statement (of coup plotters) under gun threat,” TRT's female anchor Tijen Karas said, recounting her ordeal while she was live on state television.
“They tied our hands from behind and told us not to ask any questions. They took us to a closed room except for three or five people who were to make the broadcast,” she said in televised remarks.
“They ordered us to read the statement after taking us out of the locked room... You must have realised the fear in my eyes and my lips were trembling.
These were hours that loomed over like a nightmare.” Hours after the TRT broadcast, a group of armed soldiers stormed the Istanbul premises of one of Turkey's largest media conglomerates, Dogan Media Group, which owns the CNN Turk channel as well as the Hurriyet daily and its English-language sister paper Hurriyet Daily News.
CNN Turk was forced to stop its live broadcast.
'Never forget this night'
It was CNN Turk which communicated Erdogan's first messages to the public as TRT was raided by rebel soldiers. Erdogan, who joined the private television via a smart phone, urged people to take to streets in a show of protest against the coup attempt.
Subsequently, their studios were raided by the rebel soldiers.
CNN's woman anchor Basak Sengul, who appeared calm and professional, said: “I heard their voices, they entered the building, and I also heard they spoke with our colleagues to stop the broadcast.” The television for a while showed an empty screen, punctuated from time to time with the sound of gunfire and brawls.