Yeni Akit

Yeni Akit (Turkish  :  New Agreement ) is a conservative  and Islamist Turkish daily newspaper.  According to a report published by Hrant Dink Foundation ,  Yeni Akit is one of the top three Turkish newspapers resorting to hate speech.   Yeni Akit newspaper is an avid supporter of AKP  and has close ties with president  Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

History
It was founded in 2010 as a successor to  Anadolu'da Vakit (2001 - 2010), but later took on the name  Vakit. The original  Vakit had been sued for defamation by 312 generals for a 2003 editorial written by columnist Asım Yenihaber which criticised the military. Vakit lost the case, and was ordered to pay TL1.8m in 2010. <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> Columnist Abdurrahman Dilipak had his house forcibly sold in 2009 to pay damages relating to a 2000 article.

Hate Speech
Yeni Akit<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> newspaper is known for resorting to hate speech against Jews <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">, Armenians <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">, Greeks <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">, Yazidis <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">, Alevis <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">, atheists <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">, LGBT <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">, secularists <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">, freemasons <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">, socialists <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">, communists <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">, pan-Turkists <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">, Kemalists <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">,  Grey Wolves<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">, feminists <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> on a daily basis. <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> According to a report published by Hrant Dink Foundation,  Yeni Akit<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> is one of the top three Turkish newspapers resorting to hate speech. <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> As of December 2014,  Yeni Akit<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> newspaper had a total number of 270 entries at  nefretsoylemi.org<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">, a site maintained by Hrant Dink Foundation, which monitors and reports hate speech at Turkish media.

Anti-semitism
<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">In December 2014  Yeni Akit<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> used a picture of  Adolf Hitler<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> as the centerpiece for its daily word game, and the phrase "We long for you" [Seni arıyoruz] as the answer to the puzzle.

<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">In May 2014  Yeni Akit<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> sought to blame Jews in the country's recent Soma coal mine disaster that left over 300 dead. The newspaper criticized the mine's owner for having a Jewish son-in-law and "Zionist-dominated media" for distorting the story.

<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">In September 2014  Yeni Akit<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> columnist Faruk Cose called for Turkey's Jews to be taxed to pay for reconstructing buildings damaged in Gaza during Israel's recent Operation Protective Edge.

Anti-LGBT
<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">In January 2012,  Yeni Akit<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> was fined over comments published in 2008 describing gay people as "perverts".

<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">In the aftermath of the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> the newspaper published a headline calling the victims "deviant" or "perverted", <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> which in turn was criticized by foreign media outlets.

Targeting of judges
Vakit<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> had also been charged with encouraging the 2006 Turkish Council of State <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> shooting of a judge, which was notionally a protest against a decision blocking the appointment of a teacher wearing a headscarf as principal of a nursery school. Several months earlier  Vakit<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> had produced a front page headline, ‘Here are those members’, accompanied by photographs and identities of the chief judge and three members of the 2nd Chamber of the  Turkish Council of State<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> responsible for the decision.

Targeting of journalists
<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">In July 2012 over 200 prominent people signed a criminal complaint against  Yeni Akit<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> over its attacks on Armenian-origin journalist Ali Bayramoğlu.

<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">In August the newspaper accused Cengiz Çandar <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> and Hasan Cemal <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> of supporting the PKK.

<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">In December 2012  Yeni Akit<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> published a list of 60 journalists it claimed were "terrorists and criminals".

Support of al-Qaeda
<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">In following his death in May 2011,  Yeni Akit<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> published a full page condolence in honor of  Osama bin Laden<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">.

Denial of Sivas Massacre
Yeni Akit<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> published a front page story on 23 July 2012 declaring the Sivas massacre <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> a "19 Year Lie", claiming the victims had been killed by gunshots rather than fire on the basis of morgue photos it claimed were previously unpublished. The claims were rapidly disproven, and strongly condemned.

Conviction of columnist for sexually abusing a minor
<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">In September 2009,  Vakit<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> newspaper columnist 78-year-old Hüseyin Üzmez was convicted for sexually abusing a minor and was sentenced to 13 years of prison. <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> Hüseyin Üzmez and  Vakit<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> newspaper denied the allegations and insisted this was a conspiracy.

Disinformation during Gezi Protests
During the 2013–14 protests in Turkey <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">  Yeni Akit<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> newspaper published many disinformative articles.

<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">On 5 June Mustafa Durdu, a columnist of the  Yeni Akit<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> newspaper, claimed that protestors may even have performed  group sex inside Dolmabahçe Mosque.

<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">On 13 June  Yeni Akit<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> newspaper claimed that  prostitution and group sex was common at Gezi park after 2 am. They based this claim on an "anonymous journalist who saw this happening with his own eyes and told it to someone else".

<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">On 15 June  Yeni Akit<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> accused supermarket chain Migros <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> of delivering free supplies to the protestors at Gezi park. <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> However, goods delivered to the park were bought by protestors through supermarket's internet shop.

<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">On 24 August  Yeni Akit<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> newspaper claimed that Gezi protestors were preparing for a big provocation on the August 30 Victory Day celebrations.

2016 Orlando nightclub shooting
<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">Following the  2016 Orlando nightclub shooting, the newspaper published a headline calling the victims "deviant" or "perverted", <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;"> which in turn was criticized by foreign media outlets.