Presidential election in Turkey: Recep Tayyip Erdogan has 60 times more speaking time on public television than his rival

With the approach of the presidential elections of May 14, a new stone is added to the disappearance of plurality in Turkey. The opposition believes that public television TRT has been transformed into a veritable propaganda organ in the service of the government. Two of its representatives on the higher council of radio and television analyzed the broadcasts of political meetings live on TRT between April 1 and May 1. It shows that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was entitled to more than 32 hours against 32 minutes for his rival in the presidential race Kemal Kiliçdaroglu.

>>> In Turkey, the opposition is getting in working order as the electoral campaign is about to start

The same goes for their respective supporters, 35 hours for the leader of the far-right MHP allied with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, against 10 minutes for Meral Aksener who leads the second party of the opposition alliance. The opposition had already protested against the refusal of public channels to broadcast Kemal Kiliçdaroglu’s first campaign spot in which he promised to recover every penny of the 418 billion dollars embezzled according to him by the government. He has now chosen to address the Turks daily through videos posted on his twitter account.

Reporter Without Borders unveils Wednesday, May 3 the 21st edition of its annual ranking on freedom of the press in the world. Ranked 165th out of 180, Turkey is one of the 20 countries in the world where the situation is considered very serious in terms of press freedom. Norway retains the lead in the ranking for the seventh consecutive year, while France is in 24th place.

Independent voices find it increasingly difficult to be heard

In Turkey, 80% of the media are in the hands of the government or its relatives and the rare opposition sites or channels are the target of a form of judicial harassment, nearly 200 media representatives have been brought to justice in the last three months . The most serious of course are the arrests of Kurdish journalists, the unpunished violence against journalists, but we have also recently noticed the censorship of articles denouncing the corruption of power, the instrumentalization of Islam for political ends or putting question the official death toll during the earthquake. The climate is extremely polarized, of which journalists are the first victims. And the latest disinformation law that targets social networks allows the slightest critical post to be prosecuted, with prison sentences as a result.

In its report, RSF this year denounces the effects of disinformation, political propaganda or economic manipulation. Signs also visible in Türkiye. Two recent examples show this: the issue of inflation is extremely sensitive here. The country is on its knees. Official statistics published on Wednesday May 3 in the morning show that inflation has subsided to less than 44% over one year when independent economists put it at more than double, or 105%. The opposition this week accuses the government of having recruited an army of trolls on the darknet to widely disseminate false information about it just before the election.