Baydar, who is also a columnist for Today’s Zaman, first faced censorship when he vehemently criticized the government’s handling of the Gezi protests.
On June 24, a critical column he wrote was not published. Baydar, the readers’ editor at Sabah, published readers’ letters which criticized the government stance on the Gezi Park protests, which took place against redevelopment plans of the park on İstanbul’s Taksim Square.
When he submitted a piece harshly criticizing the government, Sabah editors declined to publish it. Moreover, Erdal Şafak, editor-in-chief of Sabah, slammed Baydar for his stance regarding the Gezi protests in a published column.
Facing censorship and mounting pressure, Baydar took leave from the paper. He wrote a critical piece in the New York Times revealing the deepening ties between media owners and the government at the expense of freedom of expression, including editorial freedom.
Baydar argued in his New York Times op-ed that Turkish media owners are apparently undermining the basic principles of democracy in the country. The major motive Baydar cites is the fact that media bosses have fears of losing lucrative business deals with the government.
Illuminating business ties with media owners and the Turkish government from a critical perspective, Baydar asserted that this kind of relationship has negative impacts on democracy and the media.
When he returned to Turkey from a vacation, Baydar sent another piece to Sabah to be published. This time he reportedly wrote on how the relationship between editor-in-chief and the readers’ editor should be formulated and on the significance of editorial freedom against possible external interventions.
He suggested that there should be no hierarchical relations between an editor-in-chief and a readers’ editor, in an apparent reference to Şafak’s open criticism and intervention in his column when the daily refused to publish his earlier piece.
Turkish media reported that the Sabah daily also declined to publish Baydar’s latest piece.
The newspaper finally dismissed Baydar on Tuesday.
This constitutes the latest incident in a series of firings of journalists in the Turkish media, which have brought press and government relations into the spotlight and cast further doubts on the democratic credentials of the EU candidate.
According to a report in Today’s Zaman on Monday citing the Turkish Journalists Union (TGS), at least 22 journalists have been fired during the Gezi protests.