Journalists Sinan Aygül, Ozan Kaplanoğlu and CHP Deputy Utku Çakırözer discuss problems faced by local media in Turkey

Expression Interrupted platform recently organized an online panel discussion focusing on the problems of local media in Turkey, from financial difficulties to judicial pressure and physical attacks faced by journalists.

Journalists Sinan Aygül and Ozan Kaplanoğlu and main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) MP Utku Çakırözer, who is also a journalist by career, were the speakers in the panel, moderated by journalist Meltem Akyol.

“Local media faces the same problems faced by national media on a micro scale”

Journalist Ozan Kaplanoğlu, one of the founders of the local news portal Bursa Muhalif and the former vice president of the Bursa branch of the Progressive Journalists Association (ÇGD), explained that almost all problems experienced by the national media are also experienced on a micro scale in local media. Kaplanoğlu pointed out that financial difficulties pose a serious problem, especially for alternative media outlets: “There are 55 news websites registered with the Public Advertising Agency in Bursa. Especially online media outlets make a significant portion of their income through municipal ads and announcements. Therefore, financially speaking, we are under serious municipal pressure. There are a few online newspapers left in Bursa that are still independent and that can criticize the municipalities and the government. They are unable to receive ads and announcements from the metropolitan municipality because of their critical coverage. In the meantime the fact that nowadays anyone on social media can receive ads has had a negative impact on the advertisement revenues of media outlets. People do not want to place banners on websites or advertise in newspapers because they can advertise on social media. Advertising in national newspapers is prestigious, but it doesn’t work that way for local media. So local newspapers and journalists who want to survive are forced to look for funding or a source of capital, because it is not possible for a media outlet to survive solely on advertising revenue.”

Kaplanoğlu continued: “We are not under as much pressure as our colleagues in the east. For example, we do not receive threats for covering municipal news here. At most, the municipality can prevent us from renting their billboards or cancel a journalist’s free public transportation card. And others will follow suit, thinking ‘if the municipality is not advertising on that media outlet, then there must be something wrong.’ So they refrain from advertising.”

Kaplanoğlu also touched upon problems with content in local media: “In internet media, you need to publish a large amount of content and you need to publish it quickly, because your biggest source of income, apart from ads, is Google. You need a lot of clicks to stand out. For instance, a website in Bursa posts about 1,000 pieces of content a day. However, the website does not even have a news manager. The content is simply copied and pasted regardless of the website’s editorial policy. Editors are forced to publish a piece from wire services without editing its headline, subheading or its spot. Which directly leads to a lack of quality and lack of originality.”

Noting that the judicial harassment and political pressure faced by local journalists is usually overlooked whereas when a journalist from national media faces the same problems they become hot topics on the agenda Kaplanoğlu said the public’s support is vital for local journalists: “Not only professional organizations but the entire society needs to stand in solidarity with journalists. The problems a local journalist faces are not their problems alone, but of that particular city.”

Kaplanoğlu added: “Local media outlets are the capillaries of the national media. I think that rather than being in competition with each other, they should be cooperating. Solidarity will actually solve our problems to a large extent.”

“It is easier to put pressure on the local level”

Sinan Aygül, the president of the Bitlis Journalists Association and editor-in-chief of the local news portal Bitlis News, stated that local journalism is more difficult since a reporter is often face to face with almost all of the subjects in the news they cover: “It is a little easier to force the bureaucracy and politics on a local scale. For example, it is a little easier for a politician to put pressure on the local police or the local judiciary. However, the main problem in both the west and the east is that there is a tendency to restrict the people’s right to information.”

Aygül added that the public ads and announcements distributed by the Press Advertising Agency (BİK), an important source of financing for the press on both national and local scale, have turned into a tool for political pressure: “Journalists who receive public ads and depend on them cannot do real journalism. Inevitably self-censorship begins. Once this starts, reporting on matters against any authority is now considered a crime. Unfortunately, this is the main problem we face as local media. Newspapers that receive public ads also have the following problem: Only one or two people on their staff are journalists; the rest are their spouses, children, relatives, etc.”

Regarding the judicial pressure he experienced as a local journalist, Aygül said: “I had filmed the Turkish Red Crescent’s canned aid meat being sold at a hotel owned by the AKP Bitlis MP. Regarding this, the MP requested access blocking from magistrates in Tatvan and Bitlis, but the judges rejected his request. But three years after the incident, a case was filed against me on account of my work and I was subsequently sentenced to imprisonment. Although the access blocking request was previously rejected, four years after the incident, the Istanbul 6th Criminal Judgeship of Peace issued an access blocking decision regarding those news. Previously, our websites were completely closed, many contents were blocked, access blocking requests were accepted, and we had to publish corrections even though we should not have. This is actually a serious pressure.”

Aygül added that although judicial pressure and access blocking attempts were not new, in the past local journalists could achieve positive outcomes through their coverage but that these days this reflex too has disappeared: “Journalists have always faced judicial pressure as a means to silence them, but now, even if there is no judicial or political pressure your coverage does not yield any results, unfortunately. In other words, you cannot mobilize the authorities. You uncover an incident of corruption, you prove it in full detail, but nothing happens. Before, the news we made had an impact, good or bad, and the authorities would take action. In recent years, that reflex has disappeared. I think this is something we need to discuss.”

Aygül continued: “Doing journalism in Bitlis and being a Kurd, being a Kurdish journalist is already a disadvantage in itself. But journalism is difficult everywhere in this country. If a journalist in mainstream media has no lobby behind them, they are alone there too. … When I suffer a violent attack people do stand up for me. But the voices of many of our colleagues in similar situations are not heard. Some of them are under pressure, they have to step back because of that pressure, but they do not think that their rights have been violated. ‘This is already the case,’ they think. Everyone knows what I write about, but does anyone know what I refrain from writing out of fear? Maybe I self-censored at some point, but no one knows this.

“The public needs to speak up because this problem is the public’s problem. What we do concerns society, not individuals. We are working for the public’s right to information. When a journalist is arrested, when a journalist’s coverage is blocked, when a journalist’s website is banned, society needs to stand up for this. This silence destroys us all. But above all, journalists need to have financial freedom, the definition of journalism needs to be changed. Particularly, the distribution of press cards [by a government body] is problematic. This needs to be changed. The Press Advertising Agency’s public ad distribution policy needs to be changed or even abolished completely. We need to separate the state and the press. When the state finances the press, the press must be under the control of the state. This needs to end, for both mainstream and local media.”

“The overall climate is experienced by local media as well”

CHP Deputy Utku Çakırözer said that the larger part of the political pressure on the press in Turkey is experienced by local journalists and local media outlets. Pointing out that financial troubles and physical attacks targeting journalists have brought the local media to the brink of total destruction, Çakırözer continued: “The number of local newspapers in Turkey, which was about 2,000 a while ago, is now below 900. Whatever the climate is for journalists in the rest of the country, local media experiences it. If journalists are beaten, blocked, assaulted in Istanbul or Ankara, if they are told that it is forbidden when they want to demonstrate for their rights, the same happens locally. … Journalists are completely unprotected in small towns. Still local media is trying to do its duty.”

“The issue of access blocking decisions stands as a huge obstacle regarding our right to information. People think that this is always done in Istanbul, but many news items in local media are also being blocked and erased from our collective memory.”

As to what needs to be done against the political pressure against the media, Çakırözer said: “First of all, journalists should not be alone, neither in big cities nor in Anatolia. For this, professional organizations have to be strong. Journalists should not be left alone due to competition or strife between professional organizations. This has to end now.

“Secondly, we used to say that the Constitution and laws protected journalists, but that is not the case anymore. A democratic government must be formed in the Parliament as soon as possible and legislation such as provisions regarding censorship and access bans must be abolished.

“Third, if a journalist is blocked, taken into custody, made to stand trial, they should not be left alone. The whole society should be on the journalist’s side. A journalist works for our right to information, for the interests of workers, tradesmen, retirees, unemployed people, young people, women, each and every one of us. We need to raise this awareness so that journalists do not feel alone. The biggest problem I see right now in Turkey is that journalists are alone, unprotected and vulnerable.”