One of the founders of the G-9 platform, an umbrella organization for nine journalists' associations in Turkey, Doğan Tılıç, told Today's Zaman that the Turkish media showed great progress since the abolishment of censorship, especially within the last decade, yet there are still problems about the freedom of the press.
“There are 29 articles that stand as obstacles to a truly free press in the Turkish Penal Code. As a matter of fact, all over the world, there is still a great deal of pressure coming from governments, the business world and the elites,” he said.
But according to Tılıç, the Turkish media have much bigger problems -- for example, journalism is being done by some people who have no training in this job and who do not know very basic things about it.
“Journalism has become commercialized, just a property of tradesmen. Even though the concerns caused by the legal system have been reduced, commercial worries have increased.”
This year while marking the abolishment of censorship, there were no big celebrations or statements from officials. Only some local journalistic organizations made statements.
Journalists' working rights have been eroded during the last years also. After a recent amendment to the social security system, journalists are not allowed to retire after 20 years as in the past, but now must work at least 25 years although the working conditions in the field are very draining.
