Albayrak Medya, a subsidiary of the Albayrak Group conglomerate, governs several print publications and a television channel. The group has a broad business portfolio that spans numerous sectors, including construction, tourism, manufacturing, and defense. Among its media holdings, the daily Yeni Safak is the most prominent print publication.
Media assets
Publishing: Newspapers- Yeni Şafak; Magazines- Derin Tarih, Skyroad, Z Raporu, Lokma, Nihayet, CINS, Genc motto, Bilge cocuk, Bilge minik, Gercek Hayat, Post Öykü
Television: TV Net
News portal: GZT, Arkitekt, mecra
State Media Matrix Typology: Captured Private (CaPr)
Ownership and governance
Albayrak Medya, a media conglomerate, is under the ownership of the Albayrak family, which is famously associated with the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The company is jointly owned by six brothers from the Albayrak family – Ahmet, Nuri, Bayram, Kazim, Muzaffer, and Mustafa Albayrak. One of them was a high school classmate of Erdogan in the 1970s. The president’s family is known to regularly attend the Albayrak family’s events, including weddings. The company’s board is entirely made up of members from the Albayrak family, who governs the holding.
Source of funding and budget
Much of the Albayrak holding’s wealth is derived from public orders, particularly in construction, awarded by the government. Like other oligarchic groups in Turkey, the media within the Albayrak holding is subsidized by the profits generated from other, more profitable sectors of the corporation, such as construction. Estimates published in 2021 found that the holding received public tenders of over TRY 7bn (US$ 562m at the 2021 average exchange rate) over the course of 11 years. Local journalists interviewed for this report in May 2024 have also noted that in recent years, the company has been awarded significant state advertising contracts, which have further financed Albayrak’s media ventures.
In the past, one of the Albayrak brothers was implicated in a series of corruption scandals, including exerting pressure to alter the management of the Press Advertisement Agency (Basın İlan Kurumu), the agency responsible for distributing state advertising. A former MP has stated that the daily newspaper, Yeni Safak, has received substantial financial support from government and pro-government entities over the years.
Public records detailing the funding received by media outlets controlled by the Albayrak holding are non-existent. Consequently, local journalists are unable to determine whether their budgets are primarily composed of state financing. Additionally, these media outlets of the group also generate substantial revenue from advertising.
Editorial independence
Media outlets operated by the Albayrak group are recognized as staunch advocates of the Erdogan administration. They actively endorse the government’s policies and the president’s decisions, as reported by local journalists and activists.
The owners of the media group frequently meddle with the editorial agenda of their outlets, exerting consistent pressure on their journalists to align their reporting with their directives, as revealed by journalists in Turkey who were interviewed for this report in March 2023 and May 2024. They hire and fire journalists at their discretion, with loyalty to the group and their allies being the determining factor. In September 2023, the CEO of the company abruptly dismissed a group of reporters affiliated with Albayrak’s media outlets without providing any explanation.
No statute affirming the editorial independence of the Albayrak media outlets has been found in the most recent research conducted for this report.
The most recent research round did not identify any independent assessment or oversight mechanism that could validate the editorial independence of the Albayrak media outlets.
August 2024