The conceptualization problems of the liberal press freedom: Turkish journalists' approach to press freedom

In this study, the press freedom debates in Turkey have been tried to be interpreted within the general rules and functioning of the free market order that deregulates the circulation of capital. The aim of the study is to examine the conceptual framework in which press freedom debates are conducted, to discuss the subjective position of press capital, which is considered to be a part of the freedom issue, and to contribute to the few studies conducted in this direction. The concept of freedom has been scrutinized according to the freedom acquis in the liberal tradition, and the freedom of the press and its context have been emphasized. The scope of the research is press activities and ongoing press freedom debates in Turkey. The limitation of the study is the interviews with 15 Turkish journalists. 15 names, which are thought to provide a general framework for Turkish journalists' perception of freedom of the press, were selected considering their professional experience in various media organizations, interviews were carried out using semi-structured interview technique and the findings were analyzed through descriptive analysis. Two of the four assumptions of the research were confirmed, and it was observed that the interviewed journalists tried to provide the conditions that would create freedom of the press by taking advantage of the distortions of the current media order and could not break the mental dominance of capitalist production relations.