On Monday, Turkish newspaper Aydinlik reported, citing sources, that the United States tried to influence the Turkish media, promising to accumulate funding for its development.
"The government of the Turkish Republic should withdraw the Anatolian media from this narrow place and not push the local media into the US arms. Otherwise, it is inevitable that the US will take advantage of the situation in which the weakened Anatolian media sources find themselves and try to increase its influence," Geсgel said on Tuesday, as quoted by Aydinlik.
The head of the association believes that these US-proposed assistance packages worth over $15,000 are part of Washington’s attempts to boost the influence of the local media while the Turkish ones are going through economic difficulties.
According to Gecgel, such support must be viewed as a serious threat and it "casts a shadow" on independence and impartiality of Turkish media and threatens the country's national sovereignty.