More real than the news: Turkey's satire magazine coats truth in humor

“Would press freedom in Turkey be impacted negatively when the country’s largest media group is sold from a company that reluctantly supports the government to a company that eagerly supports the government?” read the headline of Zaytung, Turkey’s satirical news site, on March 22. It was the day that the Dogan Holding announced talks for the sale of Dogan media, which owns the top-selling daily Hurriyet and broadcaster CNN-Turk, to Demiroren Holding. "Unconfirmed rumors indicate that the government plans to unite all Turkish newspapers, TV channels and news websites under its e-state portal," noted the article, referring to the government's online service portal where Turkish citizens can access official documents, check their tax debts or research their genealogy.

“This headline is precisely why I'd rather follow the news from Zaytung than from any other paper,” Tugba, a post-graduate student of media studies at a public university in Izmir, told Al-Monitor. “I saw this headline in Zaytung barely hours after the first media bulletins on the sale, while other newspapers were probably pondering on the angle they'd use. Zaytung says what other papers dare not say, but in a funny, catchy way.”