It''s almost a custom in Turkey, that when politicians come in the line of fire by the media, the sure winner is always the media. But not this time around. In a dispute over Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan''s lack of sensitivity to the concerns held dear by the media, the media didn''t lose, but it didn''t win either, which is unusual. The instigator of the dispute, the Turkish Press Council (TPC), is now on the verge of disintegration.
Are prime ministers obligated to meet all the requests of the media, and if so how often? Erdogan doesn''t give much consideration to his relationship with the press. He appears on TV shows once in a while, answers reporters'' questions only when and if he feels it necessary, but never reaches out to columnists or pundits and doesn''t make himself open to them.
The TPC raised the issue of his approachability, or rather lack of it, after asking for an appointment to see him to discuss the newly drafted Turkish Penal Code (TCK), which caused a lot of distress over articles thought to impede freedom of the press. After the Prime Ministry didn''t return the council''s call for an appointment after two weeks of waiting, TPC Chairman Oktay Eksi criticized Erdogan and the government in a very harsh statement and announced that the council had withdrawn its application for the appointment.
If played well, the TPC and the media would have come out of the dispute with great success, as the government itself postponed the application of TCK for two months to revise some problematic articles. Furthermore, the prime minister relented and agreed to meet with a TPC delegation at his residence. All went well until Eksi made a grave mistake, and the council has started disintegrating because of it.
In an exclusive interview, only three days before his meeting with the TPC, Erdogan had stated that journalists who come to see him professionally always raise issues unrelated to their professions. Some bring with them the bureaucratic problems of their bosses, and some even come to see him with uninvited guests. He put his complaints very frankly: "The journalists procure invitations for themselves under the pretense that they''ll only discuss political matters. But when they come, they bring along their boss so that he can raise his own business problems with me. I remember one time, a newspaper bureau chief brought a group of foreigners with him who were interested in privatization."
That interview was published in the Turkish daily Hurriyet, the Dogan Media Group''s flagship. Three days later, Mr. Eksi, a senior columnist for Hurriyet, but in his capacity as Press Council chairman, visited Erdogan at his residence accompanied by a delegation of journalists, and, rather ironically considering the piece published just a few days prior, his boss. When he was barraged with nagging questions after the meeting, Mr. Eksi praised his boss, Vuslat Dogan Sabanci, as a person able to understand the problems faced by journalists, as well as, if not better than, the journalists themselves.
Well, this incident was outrageous by any standard. After the news broke, some TPC members decided to leave the organization. Both Sabah and Aksam, together with their sister publications, are now no longer members. They protested, quite correctly, that the council has become a kind of exclusive club for the Dogan Media Group.
Aydin Dogan, the press baron, as head of Dogan Media Group, has divided his empire between his four daughters. He has a socially active family in international settings as well. Dogan himself serves as a board member in the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), and his eldest daughter, Vuslat Dogan Sabanci, is a board member of the International Press Institute (IPI). As an organization which supposedly keeps the interests of journalists foremost in mind, how it is that the IPI has a newspaper boss as one of its board members is beyond comprehension. Eksi, defending himself for taking his boss to the Press Council meeting, used Ms. Sabanci''s IPI connection to downplay the impropriety of the action.
The collapse of the Press Council is a timely affair. In all its life, encompassing almost two decades, the council has done little to improve journalistic standards in Turkey. Although almost all newspapers are represented in it, many believe the TPC has served mainly to better enhance the image of the Dogan Media Group. The pictures taken during the meeting with Erdogan, which show Ms. Sabanci sitting across from the prime minister, merely reinforce this conviction.
Not only has the TPC lost credibility, but its chairman is also facing similar disgrace. Eksi is the longest-serving senior columnist in Turkey. Three years ago, his 50 years in journalism were celebrated as a joyful occasion. He set up the Press Council in the 1980s and has served as its chairman from day one. Eksi became the chairman of the World Association of Press Councils (WAPC) last year. Everybody expected many happy returns for him in the years to come.
Erdogan''s reluctance to meet with journalists has proven wise after Eksi brought his boss, Ms. Sabanci, to the Press Council''s appointment with him. The event itself impaired the dignity of journalists at large and will likely cause further damage between the media and politicians. The immediate effects of the incident have been the disintegration of the TPC and the discrediting of its heretofore honorable chairman. The Dogan Media Group intends to enlarge its media interests by buying up new ventures, especially the Star Group, which is presently owned by the state. The incident is likely to work against this intention as well.
I myself have witnessed many quarrels and disputes between politicians and the press in my lifetime. As someone who earns his livelihood as a newspaperman, I''ve never felt as humiliated as I feel after this most recent unfortunate event. We had succeeded in attracting the government''s attention to our sincere and insistent demands for the postponement of the TCK, so we won, but our victory didn''t last long.
Greed kills.
From The New Anatolian, April 12, 2005
