Attacks on the Press

9. Willing Accomplice

By Andrew Finkel

Can Dündar, then editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet, center left, and Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gül greet supporters as they arrive for a court hearing in Istanbul in March 2016.

(Reuters/Osman Orsal)

Turkey’s bloody, failed military coup on July 15, 2016, and the ruthless crackdown that followed are testament to the country’s escalating crisis of democracy. Though the crisis had been developing for years, with journalists and independent media outlets facing intense legal pressures from a government intent on serving elite interests rather than a free and open society, recent events illustrate a grave, ...