Media censorship and disinformation during the Gezi Park protests

The 2013 Gezi Park protests in Turkey saw massive amounts of censorship and disinformation by the mainstream media, especially by those supporting Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP). A poll done by Istanbul Bilgi University in the first week of the protests showed that 84% of the demonstrators cited the lack of media coverage as a reason to join the protests, higher than the 56% of protesters who referred to the destruction of Gezi Park.
Censorship during protests.
History.
Censorship is a common issue in Turkey. Since 2011, the AKP has increasingly levied restrictions on freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and internet use, and television content, as well as the right to free assembly. It has also developed links with media groups, and used administrative and legal measures (including, in one case, a $2.5 billion tax fine) against critical media groups and critical journalists: "over the last decade the AKP has built an informal, powerful, coalition of party-affiliated businessmen and media outlets whose livelihoods depend on the political order that Erdoğan is constructing. Those who resist do so at their own risk."
Televisions.
[On the afternoon of Friday, May 31, 2013]" CNN Turk was broadcasting a food show, featuring the "flavors of Niğde." Other major Turkish news channels were showing a dance contest and a roundtable on study-abroad programs. It was a classic case of the revolution not being televised. The whole country seemed to be experiencing a cognitive disconnect, with Twitter saying one thing, the government saying another, and the television off on another planet.
Social media.
As a result of the lack of mainstream media coverage, social media played a key role in keeping people informed, with Twitter hashtags #OccupyGezi and #DirenGeziParki ("Resist, Gezi Park") being adopted. In the 12 hours from 4 pm 31 May, there were more than 2 million tweets for the 3 leading hashtags, with 88% in Turkish and 90% of geolocated tweets coming from Turkey. Erdoğan said in a speech that "There is now a menace which is called Twitter. The best examples of lies can be found there. To me, social media is the worst menace to society." A December 2012 Pew Research Center study showed 35% of Turks using social networking sites.
Sixteen people in İzmir and thirteen people in Adana were detained for posting provocative messages on Twitter but were released later. "Sabah" wrote that some of those people were arrested for tweets about actions like "We've burned Bank Asia", "We destroyed the Körfez training center", "We've burned the FEM training center".
There were reports that the 3G signal in some areas had been turned off; in response, some shops and offices removed security from their Wifi networks. Rumours of censorship led to increasing use of virtual private networks (VPNs) during the protests.
According to "The Economist", "Mr Erdogan's perceived enemies" have been "inundated with menacing tweets." These include a correspondent covering the protests being called a "dirty Armenian" and "a slut" by pro-government supporters.
Disinformation during protests.
The 2013 protests in Turkey witnessed a large amount of disinformation being spread by pro-AKP, conservative, and Islamist media, also dubbed as "Yandaş Medya" ("Slanted Media"). Leading newspapers said to be spreading disinformation were "Yeni Şafak", "Yeni Akit", "Daily Sabah", "Star", "Takvim", "Bugün", "Akşam", "Zaman", "Türkiye", "Milli Gazete", "Güneş", and "Milat", among others. Leading TV channels spreading disinformation were Kanal 7, 24, Ülke TV, TRT, Samanyolu, ATV, TGRT, Sky Turk 360, TV Net, TV8, Beyaz TV, Kanaltürk, and Kanal A. Leading internet portals said to be spreading disinformation were Haber 7, Habervaktim, En Son Haber, and Rotahaber.
Turkish public broadcasting service TRT aired footage of people burning the Turkish flag. The footage was originally aired in 2010 but featured doctored dates, implying the current demonstrations were somehow secessionist in nature.
Takvim newspaper devoted its front page to a fake "interview" with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, in which Amanpour supposedly confesses that CNN's coverage of the protests was motivated by "the express interest of destabilizing Turkey for international business interests". The paper included a small disclaimer on the 14th page, saying "This interview is not real, but what you will read here is real." Takvim newspaper also sued Amanpour.