Hürriyet was founded by
Sedat Simavi on 1 May 1948 with a staff of 48. Selling 50,000 copies in its first week, In 2018,
Hurriyet was bought by
Demirören Holding, owned by the Demirören family, who are considered to be close to
President Erdoğan. and Fitch downgraded the rating of
Hürriyet to 'BB−'. Executives at the Doğan Group expressed the opinion that the tax fine was politically motivated "intimidation", caused by
Hürriyet linking of Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his political party,
AKP, to a charity scandal in Germany. In March 2009,
Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the
European Commission, expressed public concern about the fine, saying that it threatened "pluralism and freedom of the press." In September 2009, Doğan Group was fined a record US$2.5 billion, related to alleged past tax irregularities. The September fine caused further expressions of public concern from the European Commission, as well as the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. It also caused some critics and global investors to compare the fines to then-
Russian President
Vladimir Putin's use of tax-evasion charges to bankrupt oil company
Yukos for allegedly political reasons. In an interview, Erdoğan denied this charge, calling it "very ugly" and "disrespectful" to both himself and Putin. Istanbul -Hürriyet- 2000 by RaBoe 01.jpg|Hürriyet headquarters in Güneşli, Istanbul Istanbul -Hürriyet- 2000 by RaBoe 02.jpg|Hürriyet headquarters in Güneşli, Istanbul ==Notable people==