We are in Hyderabad, which is hosting the 2009 congress of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), which represents more than 18,000 publications in 120 countries. Hyderabad was an independent state that was ruled by Nizams, who were of Turkic origin and married the exiled daughters of the Ottoman family to exalt their reputation. The city, which lost its status as an independent state in 1956, is the capital of Andhra Pradesh, which is one of the 28 Indian states.It is one of India’s five important metropolitan states. We call it a state, but remember, it is a state of a country with a population of 1.3 billion. Andhra Pradesh’s population is larger than Turkey’s population, standing at around 80 million. It is also one of the country’s information technology centers. It has 25 news channels and dozens of dailies, making it an important media center. We did not have the opportunity to see a movie theater, but they say it is also a film center that competes with both Hollywood and Bollywood. The meeting, which brought together media bosses and newspaper representatives from the East and the West, was also a good opportunity to see the rising East and the slowly declining West together. While Western journalists complained about declining circulation and the effects of the global crisis on advertisement revenue, the indicators for Asian newspapers were positive. Sixty percent of newspaper sales in the world were in three Asian countries: Japan, China and India. Asian journalists were expecting the newspaper market to grow in line with the growth in income and the literacy rate.
The explanations of a Hyderabadi executive of the Sakshi newspaper and a news channel who was sitting right beside me revealed the difference between the East and the West in all its bareness.
The newspaper was founded a year ago and already has a circulation of 1.2 million. Published in the Telugu language, which is common in Hyderabad, the newspaper reaches 23 regions. It was sold in major cities such as Mumbai and New Delhi and generated a fair amount of profit. It was sold for four cents (or 25 Indian rupees) and obtained 65 percent of its revenue from advertisements.
However, graphics explaining the situation in the West showed that America’s advertising revenue plunged 40 percent and Europe’s dropped 16 percent. If the situation continues in the same way, it would probably take until 2013 to reach 2008 figures again. Western bosses had the same response to the bleak picture: No more free newspapers online.
Another interesting topic in this year’s meeting was about contradictions between the mission of a paper and the duties required. The media is supposed to be free and independent, but acting that way means facing the state, the army and advertisers.
While listening to the experiences of our colleagues in countries where there are serious problems about the media’s independence such as in Russia, Zimbabwe, Guatemala, Pakistan, Morocco and China, we recalled events that transpired in Turkey.
For example, the unfortunate events that Guatemalan journalist Jose Ruben Zamora experienced while struggling against coups and political corruption was dreadful. He had around seven near-death experiences. His home was bombed, his wife was kidnapped by 14 soldiers that raided his home, the state and military eradicated all his commercial resources, the army filed 50 lawsuits against him, he was kidnapped, drugged and dumped outside of the city border. But Zamora did not give up. He continues to publish with the support of his subscribers.
In an atmosphere where such examples of heroism in the name of freedom of expression were shared, it was very ironic that the Doğan group brought up its tax issue at the meeting and that an institution such as WAN-IFRA basically compared Turkey to countries like Zimbabwe and Russia by looking at the issue from the perspective of the Doğan group.
Moreover, prior to an official statement from WAN-IFRA, according to a news report which was apparently written by Ertuğrul Özkök, who is on the administrative board of the institution, it is understood that WAN-IFRA defends Ergenekon suspects Mustafa Balbay and Neriman Aydın. We issued a written and verbal protest to WAN-IFRA together with Suna Vidinli, Ergun Babahan, Bülent Keneş, Salih Memecan and Yavuz Baydar on behalf of the Sabah, Star and Zaman media groups.
We hope that the esteemed institution, of which we are also a member, will see the error of its ways and stop looking at Turkey through the window of the Doğan group. But since the initial reactions of the institution were not hopeful, all Turkish media groups except for the Doğan group have suspended their membership in WAN-IFRA. Let’s see if this warning will make WAN-IFRA stop taking sides in a controversial issue.
