“Otherness” and Self-Censorship in the Land of Coups: Greek Correspondents in Turkey Pre- and Post-Coup Attempt

Abstract

ABSTRACT Greek correspondents are a unique species among the other foreign correspondents based in Turkey, due to their nationality; they have a delicate role of “otherness” since their home and host countries are neighbors with a long history of fragile relations. Set within the frame of the failed coup attempt in Turkey in July 2016, this research localizes the differences in the Greek correspondents’ job before and after the failed coup attempt bearing their “otherness”. Based on the collection of primary data through in-depth semi-structured interviews with all the Greek correspondents in Turkey, the findings were conceptualized within the Actor–Network Theory combined with the framework of Histoire Croisée. The results revealed that after the failed coup attempt their work has deteriorated by four major changes: encumbrance of their journalistic role due to their “otherness”, increase of self-censorship, more workload due to higher demand for stories and extinction of governmental and diplomatic sources. This research claims that the identity of the “opponent otherness” is a key factor aggravating the practices of foreign correspondents in times of political crises; lastly, it is revealed that when democracy is backsliding, local and foreign journalism are becoming parallelly ill and present a causality effect.