PRACTICES IN TURKEY UNDER THE SELF-REGULATION OF THE MEDIA: VISION, PROBLEMS AND EFFICIENCY

1. PRACTICES IN TURKEY UNDER THE SELF-REGULATION OF THE MEDIA: VISION, PROBLEMS AND EFFICIENCY Prof.Dr. Yasemin İnceoğlu

2. Overview • Turkey a country with a population of 73 millions • Total Number of Newspapers: 2.124 (National) : 40 (Regional): 23 (Local) : 206 • 14 national /13 regional / 203 local television channels • 89 regional and 873 local radio stations.

3. Turkey is a member of the UN, Council of Europe, OECD (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development), OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe), OIC (Organization of Islamic Conferences) BSEC (Black Sea Economic Cooperation) 1999 - Official candidature to EU 2002 - Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography of UNHCHR (United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights) into the Turkish legal system. Overview

4. The Turning Points September 12,1980; coup d’état 1982 Constitution; neo-liberalism and depoliticization 1990; Private tv broadcasting Law on the Establishment of Radio and Television Enterprises and Their Broadcasts Law No.3984 of 20 April 1994 the state monopoly of the Turkish Television and Radio Corporation (TRT) was demolished.

5. Traditional media owners disappeared. The new media moguls have started to use their newspapers and TV channels for their own benefits focusing on“power” and “profit”. Change of media ownership

6. This metamorphosis led to sensationalism, manipulation, disinformation and misinformation in the news media, for the very best interest of the media conglomerates instead of citizens’ interest. Change of media ownership

7. TV is the most popular medium • Average daily time spent for watching television is; • 5.09 hours in the week days • 5.15 hours in the weekends (RTÜK, 2010). 7

8. Internet Internet users, 33 million as of September 2010. ADSL subscribers is around 6.5 million as of May 2010 .

9. 83.5 % of foreign news is AP, AFP, Reuter’s and UPI sourced Proportion of foreign news by interior source is 17.5 %. Dependency to the International News Agencies

10. The most striking ethical issues • The violation of individual rights, • Objectivity, • The use of the hidden camera • Taboo subjects • Kurdish issues and • Military issues(İnceoğlu & Çınarlı, 2006)

11. Journalism ethics are tried to be promoted by two documents: • “Declaration of Rights and Responsibilities” by Journalists Association of Turkey (1998) • “Code of Professional Ethics of the Press” by the Press Council (1989) 11

12. The Media Monitoring Report (January-March 2010 ) Total of 216 people, among them 69 journalists and furthermore authors, publishers, caricaturists, politicians and other citizens, stand trial in cases related to freedom of thought and freedom of expression(bianet).

13. Theoretical Basis of Self Regulation in the Press: Theory of Social Responsibility • Theory of Social Responsibility in the Press/1947 • “Free and Responsible Press” Report /Hutchins Commission found under chair of Robert M. Hutchins. • The other two of the trivets of social responsibility theory are ombudsmen and the principles of professional ethics.

14. The Need For Self-Regulation • With acceleration of globalisation, media role as fourth power and watch dog lost its importance. • Changes in newspaper ownership and ownership structure put the relationship between media and politics into an even more complicated situation. • Media institutions “that monopolised media” misinformed the public by creating false agendas.

15. Press Council • The aim of realizing a "freer and a morerespectable" press (media) establishing"freedom of communication” in its broadest sense and to prove that this freedom can be used within the context of responsibility. • The Supreme Board of the Press Council may only come to three different judgements: • "Rejecting the complaint" (There is no ground for the complaint), • "admonish" (to warn) the journalists in question; or • "censured" (reprimanded, reproached) if there is heavy violation of professional principles.

16. The Criticism of the Council • Press Council cannot go beyond making statements, • It cannot stay neutral in its resolutions and from time to time it even implements double standards. • The Councilhas been chaired by the same president since it’s establishment. • The Council working in a national perspective but not a libertarian perspective is being a party to the claims that are consistent with their own political opinions. • In the last few years, Press Council annulled the rule that prevented its resolutions being used as evidences in courts, thus being some kind of expert witness.

17. Complaint to the Council • Yılmaz Özdil had commented on the recent attack on pro-Kurdish politician Ahmet Türk in a writing entitled "Punch", published in the Hürriyet (14 April 2010). • Özdil wrote, "The person who punched Ahmet Türk on his nose was an interpreter of the feelings of many people in this country”.

18. The decision of the Press Council • Özdil's column did not violate article 13 of the Professional Press Principles, saying that the publication “did not encourage violence and tyranny and did not offend values of humanity".

19. Media Disclaimer Center

20. Media Disclaimer Centre • It determines publications that violate Professional Principles of the Press in the universal standards through its voluntary checks and/or complaints of citizens, shares these with the public and helps the victims of these publications as voluntary consultant.

21. Categories • Disclaimer:Texts related to news that are resolved to be false by courts • Denied News:News that are proved to be untrue by different information and documents • Statement:Reply texts sent through notary and published by the publisher • Correction:Texts of apology/erratum/correction published by the publisher on his own discretion or by warning of the person/institution that has been subject to the news • Controversial News: News, accuracy or wrongness of which are disputed

22. A Recent Study of MDC 2009-2010 (1 year period) 26 Newspapers 146 out of 350 news stories the 5 newspapers of Doğan Medya Group Leading newspaper Hürriyet (16 denied news, 13 disclaim, 18 correction) Milliyet(16 denied news, 4 disclaim, 1 statement, 26 correction)

23. Yavuz Baydar/Ombudsman of “Sabah” Daily Newspaper

24. What happened? • On June 23, 2004 Milliyet in bold headlines announced that it had exclusive access to the minutes of a secret meeting in Washington to discuss probable Turkish reaction to the hypothetical Iraqi Kurdish seizure of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. Professor Henri Barkey, a professor at Lehigh University, who was in London, expressed outrage not just that he was reported to have attended a non-existent meeting, but that even the photo purporting to be of him on Milliyet’s front page was of someone entirely different. that such a meeting took place are false.”(Finkel, 2009)

25. Milliyet newspaper’s ombudsman, ex-president of the international Organisation of News Ombudsmen, Yavuz Baydar, came to the conclusion that his newspaper’s Ankara bureau chief had been hoodwinked by a Turkish academic based at Utah University, who had claimed to be at the meeting and who was acting from motives which were unclear. Baydar saw no option but to print a retraction. • Mr Baydar was dismissed from his job as ombudsman and also removed from his position as the host of a nightly current affairs programme broadcast by CNN-Turk. He set out these events in a letter of complaint he sent to the publication committee of the Dogan Yayin Holding (DYH) which oversees a code of ethics for the group’s many publications. He also requested that the IPI issue a protest on his behalf as did other IPI members in Turkey(Finkel,2009)

26. As a result • IPI came to no conclusion. • Milliyet defended itself by saying that Baydar’s complaints were motivated by bad faith after he had decided to join a rival newspaper (Finkel, 2009).

27. Some Suggestions I • Media in Turkey is a channel to reproduce official ideology, time to time supporting nationalist and racist discourses, preparing the ground for othering others and even lynching attempts. • Media should not polarise, but rather act responsibly and with good intentions, showing democratic attitudes and mutual respect. This would offer a positive contribution to the media landscape. • Media must speak universal language that aims for peace, tolerance, dialogue and pluralism. • Turkish press is in need of radical reform.

28. Some Suggestions II • The monopolization of the Turkish media, poses a challenge to the independence and objectivity of journalistic work in Turkey. Even though there is a legislation it’s not enforced. • Another serious problem that prevents the ethical practice of journalism and promotes self-censorship is the low unionization of media professionals. Most of the journalists work outside Law 212, which regulates their rights.Unions also enforce ethics and they must defend the profession. This presentation was given at the UNESCO Project entitled “Southeast Europe Media:Support to Alignment to EU standarts” September 21, 2010, Titanic Hotel,Taksim.