Democratisation and New Media Dilemmas: a Case Study of Press Freedom in Turkey * Is ¸ıl Turkan Sciences Po, Aix en Provence, CHERPA and Department of Sociology, Bahc ¸es ¸ehir University, Istanbul ABSTRACT Turkey, as a candidate for EU membership, has been on a path to ‘advanced’ democratisation since 2002, under the government of the AKP (Justice and Development Party). The AKP, as a pro-Islamist party, defines itself as ideologically and socially moderate and economically liberal. The AKP has made a lot of advances on the way to democratisation; unfortunately, however, liberty of the press and freedom of expression generally have deteriorated considerably. There are about 60 journalists in prison in Turkey, and a report on press freedom published by Freedom House in 2011 gives the status of the country’s press as partly free and places Turkey in 112th position in terms of global press freedom rankings. This paper focuses on freedom of speech, the arrest of journalists accused of being part of the alleged ‘Ergenekon’ coup plot against the Turkish government in February 2011 and the suppression of an unpublished book, written by investigative journalist Ahmet S ¸ık, The army of the Imam. Despite all the efforts by the government, however, a campaign on Facebook (‘I also have Ahmet S ¸ık’s book’) protesting the arrest of the journalists and the suppression of the book has resulted in a draft of the book circulating on the Internet. Referring to these events, which were taking place against the background of Turkey’s 12 June 2011 election campaign, the paper will offer a comparative study of the situation of the Turkish press between 1990 and 2011. This will also serve to explain current parameters under which the media in Turkey operate in light of policies adopted by the current government. The paper will consider the following questions: has Turkey made an attempt to develop ‘advanced’ democratisation as claimed by the prime minister? Are these journalists targeted because of their journalistic research or their involvement in the alleged ‘Ergenekon’ coup plot? What is the role of the political elite and media in the creation of public opinion in regard to Turkish democracy? Do press Irish Studies in International Affairs , Vol. 23 (2012), 2335. doi: 10.3318/ISIA.2012.23.23 *This article is based on a presentation to the annual conference of the Committee for International Affairs, entitled ‘Democratisation and the New Media’, which took place at the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 25 November 2011. Author’s e-mail: isilturkan@gmail.com