Turkey’s top broadcasting authority last week revoked the licenses for two dozen radio and television companies that it said are linked to Fethullah Gulen, whom Erdogan blames for masterminding the coup, Anadolu reported.
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Separately, almost 1,700 members of the armed forces – including 149 generals and admirals – have been discharged.
In addition, 1,099 officers and 436 junior officers have also received a dishonourable discharge, the decree added. Some 15,000 people that Ankara alleges to be followers of Mr. Gulen, including a third of the highest-ranking military officers, have been detained, according to a Turkish official.
However, the media outlets to be shutdown were not named.
These include the Cihan news agency, the pro-Kurdish IMC TV and the opposition daily newspaper Taraf.
Authorities handed out arrest warrants for 42 journalists earlier this week and on Wednesday issued another 47 for former staff of the once pro-Gulen Zaman newspaper.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday expressed deep concern about the ongoing wave of arrests in Turkey following the putsch.
President Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in the country on July 20.
The developments came a day before the annual supreme military council meeting, which is expected to outline a dramatic restructuring of the military, long seen as a bastion of secular power.
But 178 generals have been detained, with 151 of them already remanded in custody, around half of the 358 generals serving in Turkey.
Gulen says his movement, which calls itself “Hizmet” – but has been labeled the “Fethullah Terrorist Organization” by the Turkish government – is dedicated to “inclusive and pluralist Islam”, and is, therefore, “antithetical to armed rebellion”.
The government also ordered that the coast guard and the gendarmerie, the security force tasked with keeping the peace in rural areas, be removed from military control and be placed under the jurisdiction of the Interior Ministry, which is administered by civilian leadership.
The coup plotters used 35 aircraft, including 24 war planes and 37 helicopters, including eight gunships, during the course of the action, according to a statement from the army carried by local news agencies. They also had 74 tanks and three ships. “It is time the authorities put a stop to this”, said Reporters Without Borders. A government official later said some 3,000 people who were detained have been released. They are accused of sympathising or belonging to a religious group led by Fetullah Gulen, an Islamic preacher in self-imposed exile in the US.
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Some 50,000 state employees have lost their jobs since July 15, mostly in the education sector.
