Despite its overall low profile in the face of increasing pressure in the country, the Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association (TÜSİAD) issued a statement on Monday after a crackdown on critical media expanded to the Cumhuriyet daily.
In the statement Turkey’s most influential industrialists association, TÜSİAD, said that the crackdown against Cumhuriyet is an example of an act that weakens the role of media in a pluralist democracy. TÜSİAD also directed attention to an increasing trend in Turkey of detaining and arresting journalists in relation to terrorism. TÜSİAD described this trend as a public issue that needs to be addressed.
TÜSİAD had kept its silence after other major crackdowns against opposition media and when a board member, Memduh Boydak, was arrested on charges of terrorism over links to the Gülen movement.