It has become clear that Ekşi, who previously called editors-in-chief whose ideas he did not agree with “media imams,” has thoroughly crammed his mind -- one already rife with aging ideas -- with distorted religious terminology.We know well what virtue means to Ekşi and his kind, who are unyielding defenders of every antidemocratic military intervention and who serve as voluntary propagandists of every psychological warfare operation waged against society for the continuation of a military guardianship over democracy. As you may immediately recall, he had the virtue of running editorials titled “Let us know about the scoundrels,” which heartlessly targeted his own fellow journalists after a media memorandum prepared by the junta of the postmodern Feb. 28, 1997 coup. But if you think that Ekşi’s virtuous, antidemocratic reflexes were recently acquired, you are wrong. His are obviously innate. Indeed, a brief examination of his past performance is sufficient to show that he invariably and steadily sides with and lends support to antidemocratic interventions with a view to protecting the interests of a small elite group, the military guardianship over democracy and the oligarchic bureaucratic establishment.
For instance, he was among the enthusiastic supporters of the military coup of May 27, 1960, which overthrew the elected government and executed the legitimate prime minister of the time. He readily reaped the rewards of his unconditional support for the coup generals when they appointed Ekşi a member of the Constituent Assembly, established after the coup. Becoming a sort of member of Parliament through appointment, not by election, Ekşi was entitled to significant retirement benefits, including a large pension and other privileges, which he continues to benefit from even today. Although he has never acted to defend the rights of journalists who were dismissed from their jobs, he is virtuous enough to oppose all sorts of legislation that would ease the lives of journalists facing financial problems, arguing that these are in fact “privileges.” For instance, while he receives a good pension from the state and happily benefits from many privileges normally granted to high-ranking public servants, he has the sense of virtue to harshly raise his voice against some bills proposed by an organization of journalists to bring relief to members of the press without causing an extra burden on the state. Wise enough to be tolerant about the privileges enjoyed by his own boss, Ekşi is strongly against the modest facilities to be introduced for his colleagues.
Being the lifelong chairman of the Press Council, which today has come to represent only the Doğan group as it has offended all other media groups with its biased activities, Ekşi has never been observed showing any loyalty to his profession or fellow journalists. But no one can have any suspicion about his loyalty to the protection of the interests of his official or visible and unofficial or invisible bosses. To follow up the commercial affairs of their bosses and exert pressure on governments, institutions and judicial organs using their media power to this end is among the virtues of Ekşi and his kind. Accordingly, they do not like strong governments in the least. They are fond of weak coalition governments which they can bend to their will and seize any public land, bank or property they like without any resistance or problem. There are plenty of examples of how they destroy governments that resist their demands. It is for this reason that it is an honor for Ekşi and his kind to be on intimate terms with the coup generals and junta members that grant such intermediate regimes to them.
Also, for them, it is part of freedom of the press to defend military coups, to portray coups as a democratic right, to afford protection to the bloody Ergenekon terrorist organization and its members, to threaten singers and writers such as Ahmet Kaya and Orhan Pamuk, to pave the way for the eventual murder of Hrant Dink and to advertise many leading figures as targets. Interestingly, they have managed to lure some international organizations, including the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and the World Economic Forum (WEF) to support their distorted conception of freedom of the press. I think the reason why institutions that are financially sponsored by the Doğan group, such as WAN-IFRA and the WEF, fell in love with this distorted mentality is the same as why Ekşi is enchanted by military coups and antidemocratic practices. Ekşi and his kind, who we must appreciate are skillful in maintaining on an international level the corrupt economic relations of the press sector to which they were accustomed in the past, are also virtuous enough to call their colleagues whom they do not approve of “poverty-stricken knights.”
I would like to once more remind international organizations who are materially and spiritually under the influence of Ekşi and his squad what freedom of the press is and is not, by quoting from a recent article by Ergun Babahan of the Star newspaper. I fully agree with Babahan on this point, which Ekşi implicitly criticized in his virtuous article:
“Freedom of the press is not freedom to become richer by using the power of the media. It does not give you freedom to see yourself above the nation and the elected government. It is also not the freedom to impose your own views on the government and Parliament as seen in many legislative activities, and in particular a bill concerning the Radio and Television Supreme Council [RTÜK]. It is also not freedom to acquire public banks or petrol stations inexpensively while weak governments are in power. It cannot be regarded as the freedom to turn a blind eye to coup threats or afford protection to pro-coup people. It cannot be treated as a concept that is construed to protect the interests of a single media group. It cannot be used as immunity from litigation in the event of tax evasion or from refraining from fulfilling one’s financial responsibilities to the state. It is never a right to make Hrant Dink, Ahmet Kaya and many others targets just because they are Armenian or Kurdish or disliked. It does not include ignoring or obscuring documents and information about conspiracies devised by a treacherous junta within the army to create chaos in society. It also does not include disrespecting the people’s right to be informed or misusing this right to manipulate them. It cannot be accepted as failure to see plans to murder non-Muslim minorities under the Cage operation while treating the court decision for wiretapping 10 judges who are suspected of being linked to the Ergenekon network as fascism. It can never be construed to mean that ‘we will do our best to close down your ruling party if you do not act according to the wishes of our boss’.”
The Doğan group has enjoyed all these freedoms, none of which can be considered part of freedom of the press. The same group is today using its financial strength and media power to mislead international organizations. As seen in the last WAN-IFRA and WEF meetings, they are successful at this.
