Summary of The “Human Rights & Media Freedom in Contemporary Turkey” talks by Abdulhamit Bilici and Mahir Zeynalov

The talk that took place on Wednesday was lead by two speakers: Abdulhamit Bilici and Mahir Zeynalov. They discussed the events that have taken place over the last 5 years that has transformed Turkey from a Semi-Democratic society to an Authoritative Regime. There was an open discussion of Turkey’s president and his dictator like control of the society. The main focus was the control of Turkey’s mass media and how there is a broad public misconception of who their leader truly is due to the biased publications that have been released. Bilici spoke about the ways the government took over Zaman newspaper company, which he used to be the editor-in-chief, and eventually shut it down because they were too critical of the leadership. Bilici was forced to flee his home country due to fear of being imprisoned.