Media ownership monitor: Turkey
Media Ownership Monitor (MOM) is a research and advocacy project carried out by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and its local partner bianet over a period of three months focused on the media ownership in Turkey.
The MOM online database, provides information on the ownership structures of the most important media outlets in Turkey, which are traceable to the beneficiary, individual owners, whose political and economic interests are also displayed. The results of the research indicate that most of those media owners, i.e. their media refrain from any criticism of the government, given that they are depending on the government for contracts in other industrial sectors where they are active, like energy, transport and construction. Seven of the ten most important owners in the television sector, which is still most videly used, are politically affiliated with the ruling party.
Apart from personal profiles of Turkey’s most influential media owners, MOM also sheds light on some failures of the media market as such, hinting at additional, undue political influence. The distribution of public funds on advertising for example, being one existentially important source of income, remains hidden.
The detailed results are now available to the public on the MOM website in English and Turkish.