‘It’s disinformation’: Turkish state TV avoids any coverage of mass street protests

News of protests has been preserve of a few newspapers and channels outside well funded pro-government networks

At the same time as the sound of clanging pots and pans rang out through the streets of opposition strongholds in Istanbul on a recent evening, marking another mass anti-government demonstration, a different reality was being broadcast to viewers of Turkish pro-government channels.

Public television showed the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, speaking to a gilded conference room after an iftar dinner. He boasted of his government’s achievements, of hiring new teachers and attracting youth to an aerospace and technology conference.