The Presidential Communications Directorate has taken control of Turkey’s state news agency, according to a presidential decree in the Official Gazette on Friday.
The presidential body is now authorized to “audit the resources, organization and human resources” of Anadolu, according to the decree reorganizing President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Directorate of Communications.
The move is part of a series of regulations that comes after adopting an executive presidential system in a narrowly backed referendum in 2017.
Turkey’s oldest media institution, Anadolu has drawn harsh criticism from the opposition for its partisan coverage favoring President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his ruling party.
Most recently it stopped broadcasting local election results on March 31, right after the Justice and Development Party (AKP) candidate for İstanbul claimed victory while he was still in the lead; however, the Supreme Election Board (YSK) declared the opposition candidate the winner the next day based on unofficial results.