When international election observers issued their preliminary findings following the May 14 elections in Turkey, they concluded that while the contest was “competitive and largely free,” it was fought on an unlevel playing field in which the incumbent and the ruling parties, by virtue of biased media coverage and restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly, had an “unjustified advantage.” The election saw President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan secure 49.51% of the vote—just shy of the 50% needed to avoid a May 28 runoff—to opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s 44.88%. For Nevşin Mengü, one of Turkey’s leading journalists, the verdict hardly came as a surprise.