Dateline, Enemy of the State?

Transcript

Istanbul, a city both familiar and foreign, where there's far more going on than meets the eye. But tonight, I'm not soaking up the atmosphere, I want to write out some questions for a man I can't interview and will never meet - at least not on this visit. Why I can't speak to him is exactly the reason I have come to Turkey.

Let me take you to this family's apartment to tell you more about what's going on in this complex country.

EMIN KARACA (Translation):  Thanks mum!

SULE KARACA, MOTHER (Translation):  I can give you some more pasta.

EMIN KARACA (Translation): Okay, let me finish this first.

SULE KARACA (Translation):  Okay, finish that.

The dinner table is not the busy place it once was for the Karaca family.

SULE KARACA (Translation): Have the exam results come out yet?

EMIN KARACA (Translation):  I got 100 in “Explaining the Koran.”

The family patriarch is facing serious terrorism charges and has spent 16 months in jail.

EMIN KARACA (Translation): I really liked my father, I loved him. It’s been bad for me that he’s gone. Also, we know he is innocent.

Sule Karaca makes a long journey every week.

REPORTER:  Good morning, Mrs Karaca. We'll follow you in our car, okay?

Eventually we reach our destination, the imposing Silivri prison. We have been told to film discretely. Sule's husband Hidayet Karaca is here awaiting trial. He's in jail on terrorism charges, arising out of a story-line from a fictional drama he broadcast seven years ago. His colleagues are trying to alert the world via this video.

HIDAYET KARACA:  I am Hidayet Karaca, I address the free world from my prison cell, freedom of the press is under serious threat in Turkey.

Karaca was the Chairman of Samanyolu TV, a multichannel network and sometime critic of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, 16 of his channels were taken off the national satellite and the network was crippled. This TV executive's predicament raises the question - has freedom of speech become an Enemy of the State in Turkey? I pass my written questions to Mrs Karaca.

REPORTER:   Can you give that to your husband and perhaps he can answer them for us? Thank you.

The Karaca family are not the only ones affected by what's going on. Also at the prison there is a demonstration under way.

CROWD (Translation): There is no salvation alone! It’s either all together or none of us!

Three academics have also been jailed - their crime, signing a petition. It condemns civilian casualties as the Government wages war against Kurdish militants.

PROTESTER (Translation): Long live solidarity!

Those jailed are accused of making terrorist propaganda and their parents are dismayed.

MOTHER (Translation):  They don’t deserve to go through this, we wish to believe that there is still the rule of law and democracy. We want them to be relieved of this punishment they don’t deserve.

After waiting two hours, Mrs Karaca returns from her visit.

REPORTER:   How was your visit?

SULE KARACA (Translation): It’s a very sad moment when we leave him there, if he really was guilty of this crime, I’d be the first to abandon him.  He says “This is just a phase we have to go through, for the sake of press freedom. I hope for my country that we can overcome this in the best way.”

To get a sense of what he used to run, we pay a visit to his network, Samanyolu TV. While this was once a large and thriving network, and you can see there's not much happening right here at the moment. This is the set of what was a very popular cooking program and absolutely no-one around.

Hidayet Karaca's office is also deserted. While I was looking around, one of the family's lawyers, Abdullah Shen, had ducked out to get a copy of the indictment against his client.

ABDULLAH SHEN, LAWYER (Translation): This is what it says verbatim: “It has been seen that these are links, among the suspects who have been charged, of aiming to change common perceptions.” The word ‘perceptions’ is not a term in criminal law.

It's examples like this that have many questioning whether free speech is under attack in Turkey. Recep Tayyip Erdogan has guided Turkey for 13 years, first, as Prime Minister and now President. He's credited with many positive reforms, in the legal system, health and transport to name a few. And in less than a decade, per capita income has nearly doubled. But right now, he's being tested. Turkey is hosting 2. 7 million Syrian refugees and there's a deadly bombing campaign from both Islamic State and Kurdish militants.

RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, TURKISH PRESIDENT (Translation): We will not allow those who attempt everything to divide this nation and dismantle this country. Do you promise this, Istanbul? Witness this, O God!

He's vowed to protect his people from terror, but who exactly are the terrorists? This is the office of Cumhuriyet newspaper, one of the last independent media voices in the country and as you can see from the fence here and our friend inside there's no shortage of threats for this kind of journalism. Editor-in-chief, Can Dundar, is overseeing the next edition.

WOMAN (Translation): I spoke to someone from the Law Journal.

You can smell printing ink in the air and the big presses are rolling. Cumhuriyet is an influential paper and strong critic of the Government, but lately Dundar and his colleagues have become the story. 11 days ago in extraordinary scenes, as Dundar was walking to court, he came face to face with a gunman.

CAN DUNDAR, CUMHURIYET EDITOR-IN-CHIEF (Translation): Stop! What are you doing?

GUNMAN (Translation): He’s a traitor!

His wife was the first to grab the gunman.

CAN DUNDAR (Translation): These are the results of all the provocations and targeting, those doing the targeting must be blamed. This is what happens if you target the media to this extent.

Dundar and a colleague were facing years in jail on terrorism and espionage charges for a story showing Government trucks carrying arms to Syrian Rebels. I was fortunate enough to interview Dundar before the shooting. I wondered if I was sitting next to a journalist or a terrorist?

CAN DUNDAR:  Yeah, being a terrorist is something very popular among Turkish journalists.

REPORTER:  I see you haven't lost your sense of humour.

CAN DUNDAR:  Thank you.

REPORTER:  Yes, because I see them using this term for almost everyone who is a critic, is that correct? Is that right?

CAN DUNDAR:  I mean, Erdogan loves to call his opponents as terrorists, or Gulenists, or enemy, etc, so we have a kind of President that hates criticism and he accepts every kind of criticism as a threat to himself. All we have done is publishing a story which is true and he called it a terrorism act.

Dundar, it turns out, is literally risking his life to highlight what he regards as a takeover of the media by President Erdogan.

CAN DUNDAR:  This is Erdogan's paper.

REPORTER:  When you say his paper, these are people that are... Yes, for example... Sympathetic.

CAN DUNDAR:  His son is running this paper at the moment and an official from the Government is running this paper. So each has this - for example, this is the Opposition Leader, same pictures, same headlines, attacking on the same day to the same guy, unbelievable, this is the first time in Turkey we have seen such a thing. That's why he's the biggest media mogul in Turkey, really, the President himself.

His case attracted high-level support, while Dundar was detained his 21-year-old son was summoned to a meeting with visiting US Vice-President Joe Biden.

EGE DUNDAR:  We met him in the Conrad hotel here. It was a short meeting, but he looked me in the eye and said my father was a really brave man and I should be really proud of him. So it was a great show of support.

But even global attention hasn't helped Dundar's case. Two hours after the shooting, he was sentenced to almost six years in prison. The verdict is being appealed. And it's not just newspapers and TV networks under attack, it seems even a Tweet can land you in serious trouble. I'm crossing a continent to learn more. . .

It's been said many times Turkey is this bridge, but it's quite incredible to be in Istanbul because we have just left Europe and in a few moments we'll be on the Asian continent, just over there.

SEDEF KABAS, JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR:  That's what we are fighting for, that's why I'm against corruption, that's why I am against any type of bribery. That's why I am against the politicians, big lies.

For years Turks couldn't turn on their TV set without seeing Sedef Kabas, a popular host and panel guest and I find out she still has many supporters.

MAN (Translation):  I listen to you.

SEDEF KABAS (Translation):  Thank you.

MAN (Translation):  We support you.

SEDEF KABAS (Translation):  Thank you.

MAN (Translation):  God willing, he will fall, understand?

SEDEF KABAS (Translation):  God willing!

In 2013 Kabas posted one simple Tweet. It was about a large corruption investigation which implicated Government ministers. She wrote, “do not forget the name of the judge who decided not to pursue the proceedings". Soon after, there was a knock on the door and she was confronted by three plainclothes police.

SEDEF KABAS:  And they said they had a search warrant in their hand and they wanted to conduct a search in my house due to one of my Tweets.

Kabas was soon charged with targeting people involved in the fight against terrorism and making threats.

SEDEF KABAS:  I first left them downstairs, where I am mostly working.

She faced ten years in jail.

SEDEF KABAS:  Well, my case really hit the news and received a lot of coverage both within the country and abroad.

She was subsequently acquitted and won't be silenced. Kabas has over 200,000 Twitter followers, and says her Tweets can often draw a nasty response.

SEDEF KABAS:  For example, hoping inshallah your body will be dismantled into tiny little pieces. Yeah, you see. He says, I would rather ((Bleep)) your mum, you are a dog, how can you talk against AKP, I will take your life.

Kabas makes the startling allegation that many of the Tweets come from supporters of the President's ruling AK party.

SEDEF KABAS:  Yes, because if you, for example, file a lawsuit against them, you cannot get any results.

REPORTER: So your strong sense is that these are supporters of the party?

SEDEF KABAS:  This is true. I mean, there are hundreds of people being paid. They are getting salary.

REPORTER:  To do what?

SEDEF KABAS:   To write these posts.

REPORTER:  How do you know that?

SEDEF KABAS:  This was on the news, everywhere. This is everywhere, everybody knows that. You see?

Sedef Kabas has no doubts that Turkey's democracy is on shaky ground.

SEDEF KABAS:  There is escalating crackdown on free press, because now the mentality of the ruling party and the mentality of Erdogan is shifting the political system into one-man rule.

On the way back there's plenty to think about. President Erdogan is facing enormous challenges. A refugee crisis, war raging across the border and now deadly suicide Bombers, but are words more explosive than bombs? Is free speech falling victim to an increasingly autocratic leader? If so, what's happening to this once moderate democracy?

The next day was my chance to get the Government's response. At this conference was Dr Ibrahim Kalin, one of the President's key advisors. We'd requested an interview with him a few days earlier.

REPORTER:  Dr Kalin, Geoff Parish from SBS TV in Australia. Your assistant has spoken to you I think about us.

DR IBRAHIM KALIN:  Yes.

REPORTER:  A question or two about press freedom, because you raised the role of the press there.

DR IBRAHIM KALIN:  You are not doing an interview now right? There are a lot of people waiting here today.

REPORTER:  Just a question about press freedom, people say press freedom in this country is under severe attack now from your Government?

DR IBRAHIM KALIN:  We are in the middle of a conference. If you can arrange something maybe, is that possible.

REPORTER:  If possible, I would love to speak with you.

Our interview request went unanswered but I still needed a response to these heavy allegations. I spoke with this Government MP.

REPORTER:  With respect, Sir, you're locking up journalists and academics, that's not a good look.

TALIP KUCUKCAN, GOVERNMENT MP:  My personal view is that academics should not be jailed, should not be taken to court, but this is a court decision, this is not a political decision. Look at the landscape of media today and the writers, and journalists and TV stations, and just you can see that some are very critical of the Government, some are pro-Government maybe and I think this is the case in many countries.

REPORTER:  Really, journalists, academics and media proprietors are they terrorists?

TALIP KUCUKCAN: No, I wouldn't say that.

REPORTER:   That's what the Government is calling them?

TALIP KUCUKCAN: No, no, the Government does not call them. The Government just provides a principle, and says while there is a violence in this country, our expectation from those people to stand by the Government.

REPORTER:  So no crackdown under way in your view?

TALIP KUCUKCAN:  No.

Try telling that to these people. This was the scene in March as the authorities decided to overhaul another media outlet critical of the Government, 'Zaman' newspaper. Having teargassed and blasted the paper's supporters, police stormed inside and hauled off editors and journalists. It was a massive show of force but some say there's something else underway here.

Both 'Zaman' newspaper and the deserted Samanyolu TV are aligned with this man, Fethullah Gulen, dubbed the global imam. The Gulen movement preaches a moderate version of Islam and interfaith dialogue but President Erdogan believes Gulen was orchestrating a coup against him aided by media critics like 'Zaman' and Samanyolu TV. He's determined to smash the movement.

RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN (Translation):  It was a coup attempt, a civilian coup. This is what they have done.

If the President is driving a harsh crackdown, how does he manage to attract huge crowds like this? We went looking for answers in Kasimpasha, the suburb where he grew up. This is the President's barber shop, no shortage of supporters here.

YASAR AYHAN, BARBER (Translation): Tayyip Erdogan is definitely not a hard man. But … he is not hard towards the people, he is very hard towards the guilty.  He is hard towards the guilty. That is the reason these people love him.

NAC GUNAY, PRESIDENT SUPPORTER: He is a good guy, a good President, I think. You know, I'm not politics, but when I see now and 20 years ago, big difference. He's a good guy, very good guy. Most of the Turkish like him.

As our time in Istanbul is drawing to a close we received word that the questions I'd sent into prison for Hidayet Karaca about whether he thought he would receive a fair trial had been answered.

REPORTER:   Nice to meet you again. Thanks.

We go to his lawyer's office. Karaca's eldest son, Sidke, is also there. Abdullah Shen reads some of the handwritten response. It's titled "being tried for a story".

HIDAYET KARACA (Translation): I have kept my honour and integrity and have done nothing to be ashamed of or to shame my friends or family. I see with sadness that the dream of a new Turkey and a new democracy has turned into questioning imagination, and censorship. My hope is that these ordeals will end. A poet has said “Get  as dark as you can, O darkness, the last point of darkness is where light starts to shine.”  I dream of all this in the dungeon, between four walls, surrounded by walls of barbed wire.

REPORTER:  Thank you. 

If President Erdogan is threatening Turkey's democracy, then Can Dundar, the man who dodged bullets and was sentenced for revealing State secrets won't go to prison quietly.

CAN DUNDAR:  It's a kind of chilling effect, you know. I mean, he - he tries to give the idea that if you criticise me, you'll be in jail, and if you are in jail, the others who are trying to say something against him, he stays silenced. That's the chilling effect.

Reporter
GEOFF PARISH

Producers
MEGGIE PALMER
BERNADINE LIM

Camera
DAVE OLLIER

Research
KERRIE ROSS
CATHERINE SCOTT
ISMAIL KAYHAN

Fixer
ENGIN BAS

Graphics
MICHAEL BROWN

Editors
RYAN WALSH
DAVID POTTS

17th May 2016