Over the past year, Turkey has experienced one of its most consequential periods for media freedom, as the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan negotiates with the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party, PKK, and at the same time intensifies its crackdown on the opposition.

Once diverse outlets that served as rare oases for critical voices in the Turkish public sphere, such as HaberTurk, KRT, Tele 1 and Gazete Duvar, have been shuttered, placed under government trusteeship, or forced to change their editorial stance.

The most recent example was Sozcu Media Group, one of the largest critical media houses in the country, including Sozcu TV, Sozcu Newspaper and Korkusuz Newspaper.

On December 2, Sozcu announced that the current editorial leadership had been fired and Yilmaz Ozdil appointed as the general manager and Ipek Ozbey as the managing editor.