{Pro-government slant marks newspaper’s first edition since judicial intervention which set off two days of protests.}<\/p>\n
Turkey’s largest-circulation newspaper has adopted a pro-government line in its first edition since a court ordered it to be seized in a controversial decision.<\/p>\n
Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from Istanbul, said the Turkish-language Zaman had changed its editorial tone drastically.<\/p>\n
The top story on Sunday described how President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended a ceremony marking a key phase in the construction of a bridge across the Bosphorus in Istanbul.<\/p>\n
“If anyone was wondering if there were going to be serious changes to the tone or editorial stance of Zaman, well they got their answer on Sunday morning,” he said.<\/p>\n
“This used to be an opposition paper but Sunday’s edition carried pro-government stories across its front page.”
\nZaman’s website was offline, with a message that read: “We will provide you, our readers, with a better quality and more objective service as soon as possible.”<\/p>\n
The website of the English-language Today’s Zaman, which was also confiscated, featured stories about the takeover and the European Union’s critical response but had not been updated since Saturday.<\/p>\n
Police stormed the offices on Friday to enforce a court decision to place it and its sister outlets under the management of trustees.<\/p>\n
The court appointed an administrator to run Zaman, Today’s Zaman and the Cihan agency.<\/p>\n
The step prompted two days of protests which riot police dispersed using tear gas and water cannon.<\/p>\n
About 50 people stood outside of the paper’s Istanbul offices again on Sunday to protest against the takeover, witnesses said.<\/p>\n
The atmosphere was calm, however.<\/p>\n
{{New administrator
\n}}<\/p>\n
Employees returned to the newsroom on Saturday to work under the new administrator, but Abdulhamit Bilici, Zaman’s editor-in-chief, and Bulent Kenes, a columnist, were fired and escorted from the premises, said Sevgi Akarcesme, top editor at Today’s Zaman.<\/p>\n
Rights groups and European officials have criticised the takeover, saying it infringed on press freedom in Turkey, an EU candidate country.<\/p>\n
En route to Brussels to attend an EU meeting, Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey\u2019s prime minister, rejected that charge, saying a legal process was under way to investigate illicit financing of a “terrorist” organisation and that there had been no political interference.<\/p>\n
Zaman was linked to Erdogan’s rival, the US-based Muslim leader Fethullah Gulen. Its takeover is part of a wider state crackdown on his religious movement.<\/p>\n
The court ruling came at the request of a prosecutor investigating Gulen on terrorism charges, state media said.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors have accused Zaman and its affiliates of praising and helping what they called a “terrorist organisation”.<\/p>\n
Erdogan and Davutoglu accuse Gulen of plotting to topple their government in 2013 after police suspected of belonging to the religious movement leaked a corruption investigation into Erdogan’s family and ministers.<\/p>\n
Erdogan accuses Gulen of building a network of supporters in the judiciary, police and media.<\/p>\n
Gulen has denied the allegations.<\/p>\n
“There is some obvious evidence that they [Gulen and Zaman] are linked to many international organisations,” Yasin Aktay, a member of Turkey’s ruling AK party, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
“And Zaman newspapers and others are part of this coordination with this apparatus.”<\/p>\n
Aktay rejected allegations about media intolerance on the part of the Turkish government.<\/p>\n
“There is no intolerance in Turkey about media criticism. [There’s] probably more than 60 or 70 percent of the media in Turkey against the government and the government is tolerating them,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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