ANKARA
Anadolu Agency’s Director General and Chairman of the Board Kemal Ozturk has dismissed claims that the agency's coverage of March 30 local elections was biased.
"None of AA's news reports is biased," Ozturk said during a televised interview on a private Turkish network on Friday.
Ozturk said AA, Turkey's state news agency, worked hard to prepare for the elections and published the results directly from poll stations for the first time in its history.
He said the ruling AK Party's early lead in the first hours of the count, for which AA was accused of manipulating the results, was typical and had been observed in past elections. He said it was because the counting officially began earlier in eastern provinces, where the party has a distinct lead over the main opposition Republican People's Party, CHP.
Ozturk said CHP's Ankara candidate for mayor, Mansur Yavas, was misinformed about the results of what turned out to be a close-run contest in the Turkish capital.
"Mr Yavas held a press conference at 09:30 p.m. to announce that his party won. When he held the press conference, only 14 percent of the vote had been counted in Ankara according to AA... Mr. Yavas said they had received the results from the Supreme Election Board. The figures from the Board were showing a mere 5 percent at the time," he said.
Ozturk said AA was also the target of cyber attacks by hacker groups Red Hack and Anonymous on the election night, which slowed data flow to the agency’s servers.
"These hacker groups along with other hackers across the world targeted the AA's website. This is an act of disgrace. These Turkish-speaking hackers launched a campaign against Turkey's state news agency to bring it down," he said.
Asked about his visit to the AK Party's headquarters on the night of the local elections, which drew the ire of opposition parties, Ozturk said he paid a 15-minute visit to the building to congratulate his friends he had worked with earlier.
"I might take sides, but AA never does," he added.
Prior to his appointment as AA's CEO, Ozturk acted as a media advisor to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
