Journalist Can Ataklı, who became famous for his confessions while unemployed, said: “They met with generals every day and made whatever they said the headlines. One day they asked a general what they should write for that day. The general told them to make something up on their own. Then they wrote the news as if the general had actually said it.” We all knew the identity of that “one” senior military officer who manipulated the media. Although his rank was lower, he acted like the “number one” man in charge of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). Through his influence over the media, he obtained power which was not bestowed on him by the law or the chain of command. The news he created did not send messages solely to civilians nor were they limited to politicians alone. The majority of the content was perhaps a message to his armed comrades. It was obvious that he was trying to communicate that he was the “real boss” and that he would “soon sit in the seat of power by pushing the limits of the law. While the news he created did rock the government, it did not serve to fulfill his dream. He was forced to retire without making it to the top and left his post without participating in the usual military handing-over ceremony.
Is the habit which we thought had ended during Hilmi Özkök's tenure as chief of general staff coming back? Worse still is if the kinds of news Ataklı exposed are still being prepared. Are certain people fabricating news just to make an impression on someone? The cause of this concern is a news article the Milliyet and Radikal dailies have been publishing for the last two days based on reports from anonymous senior military officers. Let's also not forget about news published by the Hürriyet daily about a meeting between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ. The current chief of general staff appears to be very ambitious about communicating with the media. He created a schedule for weekly press conferences with strong attendance. He extended his accreditation rights to a broader circle of people and is not hesitant to meet with more journalists. He shares his views with the public by releasing written statements. Given all this, it is inconceivable why he chooses to engage in shadowboxing. Like previous examples, are certain people trying to take up an initiative in the headquarters and trying to prove themselves? Or has Gen. Başbuğ lost hope in contemporary methods and is thus returning to ancient methods? These are questions that concern the military side.
Today, let's try to look at the issues from the perspective of journalists. “The general's suck up journalists” are the biggest obstacles in our profession. “Secret witnesses” can be used in journalism. It is both the right and the duty of the journalist to protect the witness who has revealed information but faces the risk of attack or losing his job. Press laws grant journalists the right to not disclose information about their source. I have no problem with protecting a person who risks his life for the sake of exposing the truth, but if the source is going to benefit from the news, then it is against work ethics to protect the source's identity. If the source of the information is truly a senior officer, then the public should be reasonably informed on why the identity cannot be released. If he is exposing a scandal within the TSK or if he is sharing information that poses a threat to his life or his career, then of course the identity can be protected. But they are voicing the same obvious views. There is only one reason why they are rewriting it and making it headlines -- and that is manipulation. The “senior military official” phrase appears to be rhetoric to convince and reinforce a certain point.
Does this mean that weekly briefs are going to take place with the participation of just two newspapers? Are accreditation practices going to be implemented more strictly? Should we interpret from this situation that these newspapers and journalists are the best behaved among well-behaved children?
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