REFLECTION OF LEGAL REGULATIONS MADE IN THE FIELD OF PRESS DURING COUP PERIODS ON NEWSPAPERS

The excess of the legal regulations in the field of press in Turkey is remarkable. The over-treatment of the press through the laws is the manifestation of the desire of the governments to constantly control the media. This thought was taken to more advanced levels during the military coup period and many legal regulations were put into effect for the press activities. This study discusses the subject of representation of legal regulations in press during military coup periods. The study aimed to answer the questions such as how the journalists exhibited their attitudes towards legal regulations introduced during these extraordinary periods, what activities they did in order to protect the freedom of the press, and whether they looked for reader support in these periods. In the study, the legal regulations during the period of 27th May coup, 12th March memorandum and 12th September coup were discussed and the ways in which these arrangements were reflected in Milliyet, Akşam, Cumhuriyet and Hürriyet newspapers were examined. In the study, which was carried out by the literature review method, it was determined that the journalists did not fight enough against the laws restricting the freedom of the press during these periods, the employers opposed the laws which improved the working conditions of the journalists and the law makers did not take into consideration the opinions of the journalists during the construction process of the laws.

Keywords

coups and press, freedom of press, press and legal regulations, press and government relations