Today's Zaman gazetesinin sorusuna yanıt:
''Demokratik
ve şeffaf olmayan iktidarlar, kendilerine de yeteri kadar güvenemiyorsa, sanal
gerçeği yasalara aykırı ve gayrı meşru bir şekilde kendi lehlerine çevirmeye
çalışırlar. Bu tür iktidar zihniyeti, devlet sırrı, soruşturmanın gizliliği,
güvenlik gibi gerekçeler öne sürerek, gazetecilerin dolayısıyla da yurttaşların
haber ve bilgilere özgürce ulaşmalarını engeller. Bu amaç için de
'Embedded' tabir edilen emir-komuta zinciri altında çalışan medya kuruluşlarını
seferber ederler. Böylelikle hakiki gerçeği kendi istedikleri sanal gerçek
formunda topluma sunduklarını zannederler. Oysa ki hakiki gerçek, özellikle
bugünkü iletişim teknolojisi ile, belki en fazla biraz gecikmeyle, eninde
sonunda ortaya çıkar. Basına baskı ve sansür uygulayan iktidar da, sonuç
olarak, toplum gözünde gerçeği saklayan ya da tahrif eden bir odak
konumuna düşer''.
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19 May 2013 Sunday TODAY'S ZAMAN
Gov’t under fire for limiting
freedom of press, favoring state-run media
19 May 2013 /FATMA DİŞLİ ZIBAK,ISTANBUL
Journalists and press associations have directed criticism at the
government, accusing it of monopolizing information and placing freedom of the
press at risk after private news agencies and newspapers were prevented from
covering several events last week.
To the dismay of many, only the state-run
Anatolia news agency and Turkish Radio and Television (TRT) were allowed to
cover visits by Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin and Health Minister Mehmet
Müezzinoğlu to the people in Antakya State Hospital who had been injured by the
Reyhanlı car bomb attacks last weekend. When main opposition Republican
People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu visited the victims at the same
hospital on Monday, only reporters from TRT and Anatolia were allowed to cover
Kılıçdaroğlu’s hospital visit, while reporters from the Cihan news agency, the
İhlas news agency and the Doğan news agency were not allowed to do so.
More than 50 people were killed and many
more wounded on May 11 in Hatay’s town of Reyhanlı near the Syrian border.
Turkish officials have blamed the attack on a group linked to the Syrian
regime. Apparent discrimination against these media outlets continued later in
the week as they, apart from Anatolia -- were barred from covering a historic
moment in Ankara on Tuesday when the country’s central bank paid Turkey’s final
loan installment, around $421 million, to the International Monetary Fund
(IMF).
Only Anatolia was invited to cover the
ceremony, while other private news agencies or reporters from newspapers were
not given permission to cover the event. Anatolia reported the news only to its
subscribers.
At a time when successive reports from
international institutions slam Turkey for its poor performance with regard to
freedom of the press, these incidents added further fuel to the fire.
Cihan General Manager Abdülhamit Bilici
told Sunday’s Zaman that allowing only one media outlet to cover a public event
due to reasonable grounds such as lack of space, security concerns, etc., can
be acceptable; however, in such cases the content of the news should be shared
with other media outlets without the use of a logo of the media outlet allowed,
content should be expressed in the language of the media and a pool system
should be implemented.
“This approach [of preventing certain
media from covering the news] is completely against press freedom, the people’s
right to have access to information and free competition. We want double
standards to be eliminated,” he said.
Bilici also said it is thought-provoking
for the government to keep its silence with regards to its move, which has
drawn criticism from almost all the press organizations in the country.
Media Association Chairman Salih Memecan
voiced similar concerns and said that censorship of the press should be
completely lifted as soon as possible and that such attempts by the government
damage freedom of the press in the country.
A comprehensive analysis released last
week by the Center for American Progress (CAP) details the current state of
press freedom in Turkey and provides recommendations to expand freedom of
expression in an effort to secure Turkey’s future as a thriving democracy. The
report says “among its many findings, the brief outlines how political tension
between the Turkish government, the political opposition and Kurds have led to
censorship, arrest, threats and outright violence against reporters and
minority voices; as of the end of 2012, Turkey had imprisoned 49 journalists
for their reporting, more than any other country in the world.”
According to the analysis, political
culture and journalism are intensely personal in Turkey as reporters and
editors expressing dissenting or critical views also face professional
repercussions from media proprietors concerned about the potential backlash
from government officials or tax authorities.
A report published by the Committee to
Protect Journalists (CPJ) earlier this year revealed that there are 49 jailed
journalists in Turkey. The government says the jailed journalists were not
placed behind bars due to journalistic activities but because of their links to
illegal organizations.
Some articles of the Press Law, the
Counterterrorism Law (TMK) and the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) are frequently used
to prosecute journalists in Turkey.
According to Ragıp
Duran, a veteran journalist and an academic on the communications faculty of
Galatasaray University, preventing some agencies and journalists from covering
certain events turns the government into a power center that hides facts from
society or manipulates facts.
“Governments that are
not democratic and transparent try to turn the virtual truth in their favor in
an illegal and illegitimate way if they do not have sufficient self-confidence.
Such a mentality prevents journalists -- in other words the people’s access to
information and news freely -- by utilizing such excuses as state secret,
confidentiality of an investigation or security concerns. To achieve this goal,
they mobilize ‘embedded’ media outlets that work under an order-command chain.
In this way, they think they present the real truth to society in the form of
the virtual truth they want. However, real truth, particularly with today’s
communication technology, is revealed sooner or later, perhaps with some
delay,” he explained.
Media Ethics Council (MEK) President Halit
Esendir said the move to prevent some media outlets from covering certain
events does not comply with press freedom and that it is an unfortunate act
made against the people’s right to have access to information.
“We expect authorities to show respect for
freedom of the press,” he said.
According to Media Association
Secretary-General Deniz Ergürel, the exclusion of news reporters other than TRT
and Anatolia is clearly discrimination and unfair and unacceptable in terms of
press freedom and the public’s right to have information. In addition, he said
there is no written law that gives the state media more privileges than private
media outlets, and this is also unacceptable in terms of business ethics. “News
agencies make money by selling news to their clients. When a state official
prefers the state media over the other outlets, this is clearly
discrimination,” Ergürel told Sunday’s Zaman.
The Turkish Journalists Association (TGC)
also condemned the treatment received by private news agencies in Hatay in a
statement it released last Tuesday.
The TGC stated that what those media
outlets were exposed to was clear discrimination, and it called on the
government to give up such discriminatory accreditation practices against media
outlets. “The fact that only state-owned media outlets were permitted to attend
events organized by the government in recent times can be seen as clear proof
that the government is in favor of ‘monologism’ in the press. The government is
trying to control the news and impose censorship on the press,” the TGC stated.
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