Europeans Criticize Turkey Over Threats to Media Freedoms - NYTimes.com

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By STEPHEN CASTLE and SEBNEM ARSU

BRUSSELS — European officials gave Turkey new warnings on Wednesday over threats to freedom of expression in the country as part of an annual progress report on its efforts to join the European Union.

The European enlargement commissioner, Olli Rehn, in particular criticized the Turkish tax ministry’s recent move to impose a fine of 5.7 billion liras — roughly $3.9 billion — on the country’s biggest media conglomerate, Dogan Yayin, whose affiliates and ownership have been critical of the governing party. The government reiterated on Wednesday that the issue was purely a tax matter, but Mr. Rehn argued that it seemed politically motivated.

“If a tax fine is worth the annual turnover of the company,” he said, “it is quite a strong sanction, and it may not only be a fiscal sanction but also it feels like a political sanction.”

Mr. Rehn also criticized efforts to take legal action against journalists and writers, including the Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk. And the report listed Turkey’s refusal to open its ports to vessels from Cyprus, a European government that Turkey does not recognize because of a longstanding territorial dispute over the island, as a continuing factor hurting Turkey’s efforts to join.

In general, the progress report, composed by the European Commission and including assessments of seven Balkan nations also seeking to join the European Union, did not close the door on Turkish membership. It praised several developments over the past year, including government efforts to end decades of hostilities with Armenia and open borders, and to ease tensions with the Kurdish minority in Turkey.

The Turkish minister in charge of negotiations with Europe, Egemen Bagis, called the reports a balanced document and said that the detailed nature of the criticism was a good sign for Turkey.

“The precise approach in the comments show that Turkey has entered an advanced phase in negotiations,” he said. “It tells us to keep up the good work, and continue with reforms, a message that we will be following in future.”

Still, the public criticism underlined the fragility of Turkey’s efforts to join. France’s and Germany’s outspoken opposition to full membership for Turkey have raised doubts both in Europe and within Turkey itself that a deal can be reached any time soon.

Sinan Ulgen, chairman of the Center for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies, an Istanbul-based research group, said that the European Commission appeared to be putting a positive gloss on the talks to try to keep the process alive.

“There has been a conscious effort on the part of the commission to appear a bit more positive than the situation warrants,” he said, “in view of the fact that there is a lot of opposition in Europe about Turkish accession.”

Mr. Ulgen added that France’s opposition, in particular, has given “the impression in Turkey that no matter what we do we will never get to the E.U.”

Stephen Castle reported from Brussels, and Sebnem Arsu from Bursa, Turkey.