| Dogan Media owns a number of news outlets, including the independent Hurriyet Daily News and CNN Turk |
Turkey’s Dogan Holding said on Thursday it had begun talks with Demiroren Holding on the sale of its written and visual media based on an operating value of $1.1 billion and a share value of $890 million after a discount related to debts.
Dogan’s statement to the Istanbul bourse came after an official from Demiroren, an unlisted firm seen as backing President Tayyip Erdogan, told Reuters it had agreed to buy Dogan’s media arm. The deal could further cement media support for the government.
Shares of Dogan Holding jumped more than 17 percent to 0.85 lira and its newspaper arm, Hurriyet Gazetecilik, rose 19 percent to 1.22 lira on Wednesday.
Dogan Holding’s media arm and its octogenarian founder, Aydin Dogan, have long been seen as part of Turkey’s secular establishment. Erdogan has repeatedly accused the company of bias against his Islamist-rooted AK Party, which the company has denied.
Dogan Media was fined $2.5 billion for unpaid taxes in 2009, in what government opponents saw as an attempt to crush media criticism of Erdogan. Following the tax bill, Aydin Dogan was forced to sell the group’s Milliyet and Vatan newspapers – to Demiroren.
The papers have since adopted a strong pro-government stance.
Rights groups and some of Turkey’s Western allies have sharply criticised the country’s record on media freedom and human rights following a widespread crackdown after a failed coup in July 2016.