Turkey: "Assault on the Press. Power to tax. Power to destroy"

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is denying accusations that a record fine levied against the country's largest media conglomerate, Dogan Holding, was politically motivated.

"I believe it is not right to mistake the routine works of the state agencies with freedom of press," Erdogan said, according to Turkey's state news agency, Anatolian.

The leader was speaking Monday at a dinner in the Turkish capital attended by European ambassadors.

"I have no right or authority to exert political or economic pressure on press organs, neither do they have the right to assume privileges against the law," Anatolian Agency also quoted Erdogan as saying.

Last week, the Turkish finance ministry slapped Dogan Holding with a whopping $2.5 billion fine for three years of unpaid taxes. According to its Web site, Dogan Holding's total assets as of June 30th, 2009, amounted to the equivalent of approximately $2.8 billion. Dogan's stock prices plummeted last week on news of the penalty, which economic analysts say may be the highest in Turkish history.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/09/15/turkey.press.freedom/

Turkey: "Assault on the Press. Power to tax. Power to destroy"

Turkey: "Assault on the Press. Power to tax. Power to destroy"

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