Turkey has closed more than 130 media outlets and dismissed nearly 1,700 military personnel following this month’s failed coup, official sources said on Wednesday.

The government said in its official gazette that three news agencies, 16 television channels, 45 newspapers, 15 magazines and 29 publishers have been ordered shut down.

Earlier on Wednesday, Turkey ordered another 47 journalists detained as part of the crackdown on the suspected failed coup organizer Fethullah Gulen’s supporters.

Among the newspapers ordered to shut down is the Zaman newspaper, Turkey's largest-circulated media outlet, which was seized by the government and reopened under the charge of government-appointed trustees in March.

"The prosecutors aren't interested in what individual columnists wrote or said," said the official, who requested anonymity told Reuters. "At this point, the reasoning is that prominent employees of Zaman are likely to have intimate knowledge of the Gulen network and as such could benefit the investigation."

However, the list includes journalists, such as Sahin Alpay, known for their leftist activism who do not share the religious worldview of the Gulenist movement. This has fuelled the concerns that the investigation may be turning into a witch-hunt of the president's political opponents.

Alpay is a former official of Turkey's left-leaning, secularist main opposition CHP party. The Dogan news agency said police raided his home in Istanbul early on Wednesday and detained him after a 2-1/2-hour search of the property.