Necmettin Çalışkan: "Working Journalists Day"

Necmettin Çalışkan: "Working Journalists Day"
Date: 19.1.2023 14:00

Milli Gazete columnist Assoc. Dr. Necmettin Çalışkan writes on Working Journalists Day. Here is the full article.

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Although it is not very possible to remember the single-party period, we have been living through a similar period for more than 20 years in terms of today's generation. The media was gradually brought under control. It was initially financed by the purchase of major news channels by the party leadership or its supporters. While claiming that such and such media groups etc. holding it then almost completely changed hands.
 
Now, we have come to a point where certain people are supposedly experts in every field and talk every day on these channels. So much so that they have great abilities (!) such as being an expert on every subject and being able to evaluate every subject.
 
These types, which we are tired of seeing on the screens almost every day, speak freely in every field from foreign policy to education, from justice to agriculture, from economy to health.
 
Their speeches consist only of defending the actions of the government, making comments in their favor, covering their savings, making excuses for their mistakes, that is, trumpeting the power. Contemporary versions of the Bible Sergeant!
 
PERIOD OF MEDIA MONOPOLY
 
Because these commentators know that if they make contradictory comments, their salary will be cut and they will not be able to appear on the screen again. As such, people obtain the freedom to receive information from the personal blogs of some members of the press or the local press through social media. Since the national press is monopolized, these media are considered a partly free space.
 
The freedom of the press and the supporting media organs in the country have no notion of value other than defending the government's savings. Unless Zülfü touches the wound, they see no harm in broadcasting against national and moral values. For example, all Turkey sees what is going on in the morning generation programs and the afternoon reality shows. As if detective cases were ordinary events, immoral TV series, broadcasts that destroy the family order are easily shown, subliminal propaganda is made.
 
Broadcasts are free(!) When you make a criticism that will touch the courtiers, the troll armies in the social media come into play first. Then you are faced with an interesting mess in which everyone, including high-level politicians, who considers the job to be a troll, deals with everyone.
 
The local press, one of the public's impartial news organs, is in a financial crisis. Since they are not financed like the big ones, they are trying to continue their publishing activities in great difficulties. When it is financed from somewhere, it is compelled to publish in accordance with it.
 
DISCUSSIVE PRESS FREEDOM!
 
While it is said that the press is free in Turkey and everyone can say everything easily, on the other hand, we are one of the countries with the highest number of “journalists in prison” in the world. This table, which is reflected in the numbers, is enough to explain everything. Just because we're worse on the rankings doesn't mean we're good.
 
Everyone who takes a pen is nervous. Columnist, which post will I get in trouble for? Reporter, what news will make me a target of gangs? Politician, which of my criticisms will be considered an insult to the President? If the intellectual has a fear that I will be taken from my house at midnight due to my statement or that I will go to testify, if the commentator is afraid that which sentence will cause me to be labeled as a treason or branded as a terrorist, there is a problem here. As a matter of fact, broadcaster executives are worried about which of our programs will be penalized by RTÜK.
 
While much more serious crimes and accusations are not subject to any investigation, we read so many news stories such as "I've been called to the courthouse to give a statement, I'm going to give a statement" because of any word/sharing about the President that we frequently come across on social media that it has now become commonplace.
 
FEAR OF LABELS!
 
Anyone who is dissident today may well be labeled as either a FETO member or a PKK member in any situation. There is no need for any concrete evidence for this accusation. Just one comment or word is enough for you to be labeled with terrorism, you can be labeled treason for the simplest incident. Today, tens of thousands of defamation cases can sometimes make you open to being branded as terrorism, from a single word in your sentence that you may even misunderstand, or a sentence taken with tweezers in its entirety.
 
Yes, we have seen many presidents and prime ministers in the past, but none of them has been prosecuted this much. This is a negative reflection of the "presidential party" practice brought by the new system.
 
Freedom of the press and publishing in Turkey must be guaranteed. While there is so-called freedom of the press, the actual situation does not exist. Today, in such an environment, there is no media/organ where the opposition can express themselves easily. It can only appear on any news channel as long as it is allowed. He is compelled to explain only to three or five certain channels on the side. The government has taken control of all the organs of the press, coordinates it as it wishes, publishes the news it wants, and can be skipped if it does not.
 
SO CALLED FREEDOM!
 
The murder committed in the middle of the capital, against an academic with an ideological identity, a person who was the head of an institution, is not even newsworthy. A broadcast ban is imposed on the subject, which they do not want to spread, before the law enforcement health and rescue team reaches the scene. The news they want to spread is ignored. The broadcast ban is evaluated on the basis of its effect on political will rather than public interest.
 
This is entirely a matter of whether the work done will be in favor of or against the government. Since citizens can express themselves through street interviews today, they have now tried to prevent it. The government uses the freedom of the press only as a rhetoric.
 
Yes, we live in a time when the press is in a financial bottleneck, under psychological pressure, without freedom to report, where it can be subject to all kinds of punishments that it cannot afford to cover, and where a single word from his pen has to think about what it can do. No matter how much you claim to the contrary in such an environment; independent press, powerful media and freedom of thought cannot be mentioned.

YEREL HABERLER

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