Abstract:

The excess of legal regulations made in the press area in Turkey is remarkable. The so much interference in the press field is a manifestation of the power’s desire to keep the media constantly under control. This idea has been moved to further dimensions during the periods of military coup and a number of legal regulations for the activities of the press broadcasting have been implemented. This study focused on the representation of the legal regulations on the press in the periods of the military coup. The study has been asked for answers to questions such as how journalists have shown their attitude to the legal regulations implemented in these extraordinary periods, what activities they have carried out for the protection of the freedom of the press, and whether they have sought the support of the reader in these periods. The study discussed the legal arrangements in the periods of the May 27 coup, the March 12 coup and the September 12 coup, and examined the ways in which these arrangements were reflected in the National, Evening, Republic and Hürriyet newspapers. In the study by the resource scan method, it was determined that journalists did not fight enough against the laws that restrict the freedom of the press in these periods, that employers, journalists were against the laws that improved the working conditions, and that the lawmakers did not take into account the opinions of journalists in the process of making the laws.

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