On Eve of Turkey’s Election, Only Erdogan Gets TV Time
- State TV TRT gives no air time to opposition’s Istanbul rally
- President Erdogan also in Istanbul last day before election
Crowds gather as Muharrem Ince, leader of the Secular Republican People's Party (CHP) and presidential candidate, speaks during his last pre election campaign rally in Maltepe, Istanbul, Turkey, on Saturday, June 23.
Photographer: Kostas Tsironis/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s biggest rival appealed to a massive rally in Istanbul in the campaign’s final hours. You just wouldn’t know it watching state television.
Muharrem Ince, a 54-year-old former physics teacher, addressed what his CHP party claimed was a crowd of 4 million in the Maltepe district on the Asian side of the Bosporus. But the government’s TRT Haber stayed with its regular programming, interrupting it only when Erdogan addressed smaller groups in his travels around Istanbul.