Where is investigative journalism?
1) In every event, the media should first be interested in the essence, then the details. What is the incident? This question should first be asked, the perpetrator(s) should be investigated, whether this is an organized or individual event should be examined, those who directly or indirectly instigated the perpetrator(s) should be probed... However, right after the treacherous attack, the Turkish media handled the issue from a political point of view and delivered its judgment. As the verdict was “an attack against secularism” from the very beginning, no detail about the issue is of importance anymore. It is perhaps possible to understand the judiciary members airing their views with emotional statements -- without taking any legal evidence into account -- but what is happening to the media members whose main mission is to investigate the events? Why is investigative journalism being shelved and the issue heading completely towards a political dimension and even concentrating on settling of accounts.
The murder is different this time
2) This is not the first time an armed attack has been carried out by the hands of evil, instigating a secular-anti-secular conflict, has taken place in this country. However, it is very different this time! The perpetrators have not been arrested in the murders of Bahriye Ucok, Ugur Mumcu, Taner Kislali, Necip Hablemitoglu. Therefore, the mysteries behind these contemptible attacks have not been solved. However, the murderer could not escape this time, thank God. The disappointment with the media, the judiciary and even the politics of disappointment start at this very point. Some people are not at all interested in the murderer’s identity, the weapon he used, the information obtained as a result of the technical pursuit etc. Why not? I really mean it, why not? This is because our mission as journalists is not to make public opinions over a loathsome murder, wear down some people, sublimate others and promote polarizations! There is a terrible murder here; we must first show interest in the incident itself, otherwise the event will head towards another channel, and this is what has happened...
Professional insensitivity
3) Wasn’t it our media that was complaining about the political murders committed previously as “unsolved assassinations”? Why then try to put a murderer caught red-handed among trivial details in the inside pages? They cannot say, “Come on, let us first solve the issue itself and then let us fight together against all the forces behind this incident without discriminating between the secular and the anti-secular.” This is not only a sign of political danger but also that of professional insensitivity... The price for this will be greater than that of February 28...
Big mistakes in live broadcasts
4) I hope universities - at least faculties of communications - in this country are not detached from their reason d’etre, such as investigation, and should take pains to deal with the live broadcast disasters that took place last week. The information first relayed as “two dead,” then “one dead” and then “all of them seriously wounded” has nothing to do with hot news. News channels do not make such simple mistakes, they shouldn’t. This is because the public thinks they are more serious, more newsworthy, more journalistic, and relies more on them.
It is wrong to say ‘you speak and you listen’
5) The mistakes of the news channels do not only stem from their relaying information hastily. Explaining some reports with people of the same world view only causes a bad image for certain news channels which gain their strengths from the majority. Some news channels were in a much more interesting situation. The newspaper administrators of the same group almost toed the line of their own channels. It was as if different names, different newspapers were reflected on the screen but the real situation was quite different: A limited view was given through different names from different channels but unfortunately that view developed into a closed discourse within itself; they had no patience even to listen to opposite views.
TV channels administrators should not be so quick-tempered
6) Ignoring the severity of the issue is nothing other than being an accomplice in treason. However, in such a case, the responsibility of the publisher requires staying calm. Yet after the loathsome attack, some administrators were in an extremely nervous, extremely aggressive and extremely ill-tempered mood. Some of them said almost certainly, “This is the issue. Thinking beyond this is treason.” Well, this nation previously had been subjected to many provocations that resulted in social conflicts and paid very heavy prices. There were dark forces behind previous perpetrators of the unsolved murders and the same forces carried out the same bloody attack on the Council of State. Reducing the issue to that of a tribal conflict turned sinister instead of analyzing everything to its smallest detail has nothing to do with investigative journalism!
Wrong approach to the funeral ceremony
7) The protest was overdone at the funeral ceremony. Claiming the opposite is nothing other than ideological blindness. The insults and ill-treatment almost to the degree of assault hurt not only those who voted for these people but also democracy’s own values. What did that excessive rage mean? This kind of attitude will magnify the Justice and Development Party in the elections, the people will react with votes at the polls. Let’s assume the government’s criticism of the unacceptable headscarf decision by the Council of State caused anger; then what is the meaning of the rude attitude of Motherland Party (ANAP) leader Erkan Mumcu, and most especially Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal whose behavior in recent months I can hardly understand, against people outside the government? The issue has another dimension, too: The crowd booing all the politicians tried to give another message by applauding the army officers. In fact, it was caught red-handed while reacting anti-democratically. It is obvious that the Turkish army will not fall into this cheap trick since the enemies of democracy also applauded the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) in the past. Those who were the enemies of the army in periods afterwards have always been the same circles...The media could not catch this distortion, either; it even tried to gather hopes from this complex situation, some people were really happy from inside...
Some columnists exceeded their writing expiration date
8) I say openly; some columnists exceeded their expiration date in writing. For God’s sake, is it possible to consider all events within the parameters of the Cold War era? People evaluating everything with ideological fanaticism, seeing no difference between the journalist and the triggerman should henceforth quit this profession because the profession will quit them if they fail to do so. The person attempting to humiliate his own colleagues making the best of journalism in order to understand what lies beneath the events -- at least striving to do so -- because they do not serve his own prejudice must be referred to public conscience because even if a person who has acquired a position by insulting others does not notice the atrophy in his professional intelligence, the new generations raised in the bosom of the information society want to read investigated, researched realities not palavers full of prejudices or bits of information served. It will no longer be so easy to deceive the people, be sure...
If no lesson is learned from the past week...
To sum up, just a few days after the vile attack on the Council of State it was discovered that there are filthy things beneath the incident. Some people want to cause chaos in the country. There are several gangs formed for this sinister target in this country and the end of the gangs stretches beyond unpredictability. Some segments of the society have been provoked against the other segment. If no result is obtained here, the roles assigned to these masses will change and the other side will be provoked this time. Such a period has begun. The media on its part must extract a lesson to be learned from this incident.
I regret saying that instead of questioning the ugly scenario submitted to the public with journalistic curiosity, some media organizations happily accepted the role put forward and were even under the pressure of that scenario. It was naturally wrong for Vakit newspaper to publish the photos of the Council of State members; at least it was proper for the dark forces to use them. I believe the newspaper did not do this for that purpose but it should have foreseen this terrible risk. The newspaper should have learned a lesson from previous happenings because even if it was not done with that aim, some people may use the material you publish for conspiracy purposes.
The media again perpetuating anti-democratic relations just as the wounds of February 28 are trying to heal would hurt everybody, the media in particular. It should be asked one more time whether or not the publications in the first few days served the shady goals behind the loathsome attack! At least this time it must be different and the media must not be deceived by this game... It is evident that similar provocations may be repeated. When the media is so pushy and prejudiced, the damage is greater and those who cause this are making mistakes in a way not to be accountable to history. I hope this fiasco turns into an experience that will help prevent possible conspiracies.
May 25, 2006
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