For many years, I have been a close follower of its English language programs. I realized that many features were not necessarily a true reflection of present-day Turkey. If news emerged, it was about conflict or some other “negative” event. One of the rare exceptions to this rule was when former European Union Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn took a Bosporus boat cruise together with Ali Babacan, who at that time was in charge of Turkey’s EU portfolio. I never got rid of the feeling that if Rehn had visited Serbia or Kiev on the same day instead of coming to İstanbul, he would still have been in the (euro-)news, but Turkey would not -- it was all about an EU commissioner’s itinerary, not about showing a positive image of Turkey as a candidate country.Then again this argument holds true when analyzing some of the programs as are broadcast by the BBC and other European channels -- more often than not, they revert to the clichéd image of Turkey, which according to their scriptwriters consists of nothing more than showing dark alleyways and elderly women in shabby clothing doing their errands in even more obscure street markets. Let me put this into perspective: there are many older folk in Turkey who can not afford to buy an Armani outfit, yes, indeed there are, but is this not the economic reality in every other European country, too? And there are, of course, side streets in Turkey with badly lit restaurants which do not necessarily offer nouvelle cuisine either, but then again, is that not the reality in almost any other European city as well? If I want to show Basel, Berlin or Birmingham in a negative light, I could easily do so by overlooking their positive aspects, but why would I?
Can Euronews, particularly now that it broadcasts in the Turkish language, finally make a difference by changing its own perceptions? I do hope so.
Let us take a look at who is behind making the news for Euronews: in a nutshell, it is a public information station not unlike America’s C-SPAN in all but name; it does not form part of the EU administration though.
Many regular Euronews programs touch upon policymaking areas of the European Union that hardly make the headlines anywhere else, so this can be looked on as a “plus.” It does add knowledge about how Europe works and, for example, what kind of research funding is made available for which transnational project (of course, never mentioning which public tender went awry or which institution received monies well in excess of what they deserved to receive in the first place). It hosts debates with members of the European Parliament. It features cultural ads from across Europe. In short, it wants to portray Europe as “one continent, one [federal] union,” discreetly neglecting the fact that even today’s “Lisbonized EU” is many years away from representing the entire continent and it is not -- if it ever will be -- a federal, political union as the current majority in Brussels hopes for.
Now that it broadcasts in Turkish, too, one might expect that not only more EU-relevant news will make its way into Turkish living rooms but that more news about Turkey will reach European audiences at the same time.
Can it become a lobbying tool for Ankara? Why not! However, Ankara should be careful as what happened in the Balkans and the former Soviet empire satellite states after 1990 may be repeated closer to home: certain EU circles, who until very recently opposed Turkey’s EU entry, are now somehow trying to make inroads of a financial nature: what they really want is not to argue the case for democracy but to secure lucrative EU technical assistance contracts, consulting fees defying any logic, and if Turkey eventually joins the EU, basically taking over the regulatory affairs department in the central government.
I hope that Euronews is opening its doors to objective reporting about this country. If not, I would suggest that we log onto www.europa.eu in order to retrieve the more direct, perhaps even more honest, day-to-day news about the EU as put online by the European Commission itself.
