Democracy is not possible with the media, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has stressed, arguing that even the most powerful countries in today’s world are being ruled by the media as his latest trips to the United States and Germany have shown.
“I have seen that these giant countries are being governed by the media and not by their leaders. Because whenever I spoke with them they were saying, ‘Our media says this, our media writes that.’ And I told them, ‘Just forget the media, tell me what your people say,’” Erdoğan said in a speech he made on the occasion of the beginning of the new academic year in Ankara on Oct. 3.
Erdoğan was in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly where he held scores of bilateral talks with foreign leaders before paying a three-day state visit to Germany last week. International media, particularly the U.S. and European outlets, have long been criticizing the Turkish government for the pressure imposed on the media and journalists in Turkey.
In the past, the Turkish media had run Turkey claiming itself as the fourth power, but what the government cares about is the people itself, the president stressed.
“What is important for us is how our people judge us. Democracy is empowered by the people. There is democracy if there are people. Democracy is not possible with the media,” he said.
“And it is not possible for a politician to pursue sound politics if he or she is afraid of the media,” said Erdoğan.
Citing a growing international smear campaign by the foreign media and academic circles against Turkey amid its efforts to overcome economic turbulence and to fight multiple terror organizations, he called on Turkish academics to lend support to his government’s efforts to fight them.
“There is so much inaccurate information against us in Western media. We need to work to correct them. We need the support of our academics in what I call a national campaign against all of it,” he said.
“They can back this struggle by explaining the truth about our country on their own merits,” said the president.
