The European Union will tell Turkey this week to treat media group Dogan Yayin fairly in a tax dispute as it may affect freedom of the press in the EU candidate country, a draft report showed on Tuesday. The European Commission's annual report on Turkey's progress towards EU membership, obtained by Reuters on the eve of its publication, urges Ankara to step up economic and political reforms and highlights many shortcomings.
Despite progress achieved, Turkey should do more to protect freedom of expression and the press, the draft said. The Dogan case, in which tax authorities have slapped a $3.3 billion tax fine on the company, is among several raising concern. "The high fines imposed by the revenue authorities potentially undermine the economic viability of the group and therefore affect freedom of the press in practice," the draft said. "There is a need to uphold the principles of proportionality and of fairness in these tax-related procedures."
On Tuesday, Turkey's tax authority rejected collateral provided by Dogan to fight the fine. Dogan, which controls half of the Turkish private media market, has accused the government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan of singling it out because of critical coverage. The government rejects this, but has in the past accused Dogan newspapers and television channels of acting like an opposition party.
Apart from the report on Turkey, the Commission will publish assessments of other EU hopefuls' readiness to join the 27-member bloc - Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. According to a paper obtained by Reuters last week, the Commission will tell Croatia that it may be able to conclude entry talks with the EU next year and recommend that the accession treaty for ex-Yugoslav country be drafted.
Croatia started EU entry talks along with Turkey in 2005. But Ankara's progress has been slow, partly due to its conflict with EU member Cyprus over the Turkish northern part of the island, and because of reluctance of some countries, such as France, to admit Turkey as a member. However, it noted progress in many areas, such as amending the penal code to change an article covering punishment for those offending "Turkishness".
Investigations into a suspected coup attempt by an alleged criminal group called Ergenekon, which involves members of the military, would be a major test of Turkish democracy and relations between the civilian authorities and the military.