ABSTRACT
From the outset, political engagement was significant for media owners and journalist-state relationships in Turkey. After the third coup-d’état in 1980, new investors who came from other sectors carried the ‘corporate mentality’ into their media operations, while ‘clientelist’ relationships between media patrons and the state became increasingly established. Today, irrational market conditions and patronage relationships result in a climate of self-censorship, a lack of quality in journalism and inconvenient working conditions in the media. At the same time, journalists are proving to be unable to take the initiative to improve their professional standards due to a lack of horizontal solidarity. There is not an organization regulating the media in Turkey in a transparent or accountable way.
