Arguments that there is much more to be taken into account than a simple “war against an oppositional media” often fall on deaf ears. But, the truth has its mysterious ways. It demonstrates itself, in its own time, by various means and causes embarrassment for those who -- knowingly or not -- have fallen for those myths.“This media business in Turkey cannot go on like this anymore…” These words come from Dinç Bilgin, in a spectacular interview published in the Taraf daily over the last two days. Bilgin has been one of the prominent figures of recent press history. His name was of a success story, from the mid-’80s, linked with Sabah, which is still one of Turkey’s leading dailies. A native of İzmir and a publisher by family tradition, Bilgin moved to İstanbul and established Sabah as a liberal news outlet and was extremely influential in Turkey’s economic liberalization under the late Turgut Özal. His rise was followed by a tragic decline, when his business collapsed in the tumultuous ’90s and led to several legal processes. He lost all, except his experience and knowledge of the secrets of the Turkish media. He is, doubtlessly, a “black box” who knows how the media system works in Turkey.
The interview with Bilgin is of extreme value for all those who want to put things in the correct context, and it constitutes primary source material together with the two recent controversial books by Hürriyet’s ex-columnist Emin Çölaşan.
I’m leaving space in my column for some (a tiny bit) of Bilgin’s remarks.
Media wars and their aftermath: “[In the ’90s] there was a huge competition between Sabah and the Doğan Group. Promotions were distributed, encyclopedias, cookers… This and that led to the choice of prime ministers. They supported Mesut Yılmaz, and we backed Tansu Çiller. They won. But, meanwhile, the press started to rot; it went out of control. The media became more powerful than ever before. Both the military and the media became powerful. Governments were very weak. The media built an alliance with the military and the judiciary. This gave the media a normally unacceptable power before the governments… After 1995 there was a kind of looting in Turkey. Let us say, a tender on energy distribution was at stake. One of them [the tenders] went to the Ihlas [media] Group, the other to Show TV and the third to another. It had become that bizarre. Managers of my newspaper were frustrated that we were unable to get a share. They’d say, ‘Boss, let us do this or that business.’ I resisted, but the economy changed shape between 1995 and 1997, and each media group had its own bank. This was the beginning for Sabah to enter financial relations with the government. When you have a bank … you lose your freedom. This is what happened and marked the end of journalism here.”
“Editorial choices”: “Newspapers always have to watch the ‘sensitivities.’ For instance, there is to be an investment in GSM stations, coal or nuclear energy; this reveals immediately the ‘positions’ in the press. One can easily guess which paper will publish which ‘story.’ One of them praises, say, the GSM stations, as the others warn of cancer risks… Journalists developed a reflex to defend the business interests of the proprietor. One can assume that no good things may happen to those who write against those interests, but ‘putting the brakes on’ like that ends journalism.”
About Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s relations with the media: “As a matter of fact, this is a good period. The prime minister is outspoken and does not appease the media owners. It must be given to him because he refuses to be found in embarrassing situations. Before, the press which had business with the financial bureaucracy or a state institution used to visit the PM, or he was just a call away. Now they cannot reach him…”
“If I were a publisher today”: “I would not allow denial in the face of all these developments. I would not allow [comments] in defense of Ergenekon. If I had been the owner of Sabah today ... I would rise up against party closures. I told my colleagues then that it is impossible for the [Justice and Development Party] AKP to be closed, because it is against the spirit of our time, but they believed that they would get rid of the AKP and they supported it. That was such a shame! I miss a press which does not have the luxury of being involved in shameful acts. Such a press would not have ‘money business’ with the state.”
