EHA Medya is a news portal that was established in 2018 to produce and disseminate news in Turkish, English, German and Arabic.
Media assets
News portal: EHA Medya
State Media Matrix Typology: Captured Private (CaPr)
Ownership and governance
EHA Medya is run by Refleks Medya İletişim, a company incorporated in 2018. The outlet was created with the participation of Nuh Yılmaz, a former journalist and academic who became a secret agent for the Turkish intelligence agency, MIT. The outlet received significant support from Turkuvaz Media Group, a large media group owned by one of the oligarchs close to the Turkish government. By not including EHA Medya in Turkuvaz Media Group’s portfolio, the Turkish government wanted to maintain an impression that EHA Medya is an independent news operation.
Source of funding and budget
EHA Medya does not disclose its sources of funding. According to journalists and experts interviewed for this report, the outlet gets funds and support both from pro-government media owned by oligarchs close to the Turkish government and from the government itself.
Editorial independence
According to journalists interviewed for this report and media reports, EHA Medya was created with the purpose of promoting the narrative of the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. EHA Medya is overtly biased in favor of President Erdoğan and his policies, its content being regularly shared by people close to the president.
There is no such statute to establish the outlet’s independence. No independent assessment/oversight mechanism that would validate the outlet’s editorial independence has been identified during the latest round of research.
October 2023