A news story that teaches a lesson in journalism

Enver Aysever, who is currently imprisoned in Silivri, issued a statement through his lawyer, Mikayil Dilbaz, following the involvement of CHP Chairman Özgür Özel in the matter:

“My client has clearly and face-to-face stated to me that while inside, he used the expression ‘I will not shake the hand of a thief’ regarding Mr. Ekrem İmamoğlu, and during the visit, addressing Mr. Özgür Özel, he said, ‘If you occupy the party’s only agenda with this issue in order to defend thieves, Mr. Chairman, I fear that we will be changing places.’ The denial of these statements from the podium today is not a debate about an individual; it is a matter of truth, testimony, and ethics in politics.”

With this statement, Enver Aysever has refuted the words of Özgür Özel at the Çekmeköy rally: “My journalist brother who went inside. I said ‘get well soon,’ I visited him. (Referring to Mahmut Övür) He wrote a pack of lies. Not a single word is true.”

Aysever had previously announced, again through his lawyer, that he would make a statement after being released from prison, but it seems he changed his mind after Özgür Özel’s speech. I wish he had made this statement immediately after December 15, 2025, when Mahmut Övür’s article titled “The Aysever-İmamoğlu fight in Silivri” was published; it would have prevented so much speculation from arising.

It is significant that there is still no word from Ekrem İmamoğlu, the other party involved in the events. Relying on people who were not the actual parties to the incident to report that “it turned out to be a lie” did not lead us to the truth either.

In conclusion, it must be accepted that Mahmut Övür’s report was verified by its source. However, I will repeat my criticism. The first thing Övür should have done was to verify the news from its source before publishing it. The report was incomplete in this respect; Enver Aysever has now rectified that.

These are the lessons to be learned for the sake of journalism from the journey of this news story. Let me state once again that Aysever’s imprisonment since December 11 solely because of his words is an injustice.

Discrediting the media and purification

Mehmet Üstündağ is the third magazine writer who is a suspect in the drug investigation. Like Cihan Şensözlü, who was arrested in this investigation, Üstündağ also wrote for Hürriyet’s Kelebek supplement.

Hürriyet, just as it did with the arrest of Cihan Şensözlü, hid from its readers the detention of Mehmet Üstündağ and his subsequent release under judicial control. In reports titled “Detention for 4 suspects” and “4 people at the courthouse in drug and prostitution investigation,” it listed Mehmet Üstündağ’s name among those detained. Again, it did not mention that he was their own writer, merely dismissing him as a “magazine writer.”

The newspaper Sabah also hid the arrest warrant issued for Günaydın supplement writer Mert Vidinli between the lines and did not mention in its reports that he was their own writer.

These are futile efforts. Instead of trying to sweep the dirt under the rug and hide it, it would be more useful if they questioned why magazine writers are getting involved in drug and prostitution investigations.

Names like Cihan Şensözlü or Mert Vidinli, who do not come from a journalism background, infiltrate newspapers thanks to the networks of relationships they have built. Journalism is not their primary source of income either; they have different jobs in the magazine world and use “magazine writing” as a tool for those jobs.

The worrying part is that those who manage these newspapers also know that they use their positions and journalism as a tool for profit and power, and yet they still open space for these names.

Drug operations discredit not only the names detained or arrested but all journalists and even the profession of journalism itself. The media must oppose this injustice, stigmatization, and smearing. At the same time, it must initiate a process of internal purification.

This profession must get rid of names who use journalism for different purposes and who do not comply with journalistic standards and principles… 

They could not correct Bahçeli’s mistake

We are once again faced with the question, “Can mistakes in politicians’ speeches be corrected?” MHP Chairman Devlet Bahçeli made three mistakes in two sentences during his speech at the group meeting:

“The country is almost making one miss the late Recep Nuri Güntekin’s work titled Yaprak Dökümü. Everyone who comes along has become Bihter, everyone who comes along has taken on the character of Behlül.”

It is Reşat Nuri Güntekin, not Recep. Furthermore, Bihter and Behlül are characters in “Aşk-ı Memnu,” not “Yaprak Dökümü.” The author of that novel is Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil.

The fundamental principle in journalism is to convey the truth without distortion. One should not mediate in a mistake, no matter who utters it. In cases where politicians like Bahçeli make mistakes, it is not enough to just correct them; the correction must also be clearly stated in the news.

The opposition media corrected Bahçeli’s “Recep,” “Yaprak Dökümü,” and “Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil” mistakes by explaining the inaccuracy. Pro-government media outlets such as Hürriyet, Sabah, Türkiye, and Yeni Şafak, however, despite it being one of the most shared topics on social media, only corrected “Recep” to “Reşat” and published the other two mistakes without correcting them.

Thus, they caused people who do not know these books and their authors to learn incorrectly; they also hid Bahçeli’s mistakes from their readers. 

The pro-government media did not see the injustice

Pınar Erbaş was put on leave immediately after Mehmet Akif Ersoy was arrested in the drug operation and was removed from her position as the anchor of the Show TV main news bulletin. Now, her employment has been terminated.

Yet, her name is not mentioned in the investigation, nor is there any accusation against her. She was only married to Mehmet Akif Ersoy, whom she married on August 14, 2022, for 8 months and separated due to severe incompatibility. She has no connection to what happened after that.

Pınar Erbaş is very right to react by saying, “It is impossible for me to accept being a victim of a story where I cannot even stomach being the victim. It is a great injustice.” By firing her, the trustee management is punishing her “just for being an ex-wife.”

Furthermore, we all know the answer to Pınar Erbaş’s question: “If I were the woman at the center of the accusations in question, would the other party’s employment have been terminated?” If the accused party had been a woman, the male ex-husband would not have been punished like this and would not have lost his job. Therefore, removing Pınar Erbaş from the screen is as unfair as it is heartless and discriminatory.

Some journalist friends, especially our female colleagues, supported Pınar Erbaş and opposed this injustice. But unfortunately, the expected support from journalistic professional organizations did not come. It echoed in the opposition media, but the pro-government media did not even report on our female colleague being subjected to injustice just for being an ex-wife…

Who is the leader of the mobile phone market?

Milliyet reported the news with the headline “The new second of mobile, the champion of transfers,” Sabah with “Türk Telekom rose to second place in the mobile market,” and Yeni Şafak with “The operator that gained the most customers is Türk Telekom.”

I say news, but all three were identical texts. Türk Telekom’s press release had been printed exactly as is, or it was advertorial. If it had come from the pen of a journalist, the market shares of other companies would also have been included in the text. In these texts, the company that is second in subscriber numbers was the focus of the news; it was presented to the reader with praise, but the name of the market leader was not even mentioned.

To check the news, I looked at the Electronic Communications Market Data 2025 Third Quarter Report, which was recently announced by the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK). It was true that Türk Telekom Mobile had risen to second place in market share. TT Mobil, which was in third place after Turkcell and Vodafone in the previous period, had surpassed Vodafone by a small margin to rise to second place. In the July-August-September months of 2025, 39.4 percent of the mobile phone market were Turkcell subscribers, 31.1 percent were TT Mobil, and 29.6 percent were Vodafone.

If you write about the second place in the mobile phone market and do not mention the others, you have given incomplete information to the reader; you have done advertising instead of news. This is the abuse of journalism…

In a single sentence:

A group of journalists, including Emin Pazarcı (Akşam), Mustafa Yıldız (Ülke TV), Sinan Burhan (MHA), Lamia Ayhan (Lider Haber), Yücel Velioğlu (AA), and Osman Ateşli (Haber7), went on Umrah together with BBP Chairman Mustafa Destici and at the invitation of the BBP, and performed worship.

- The social media accounts of many Kurdish media organizations and journalists, including the Mezopotamya Agency, Yeni Yaşam newspaper, and Jinnews, which report on developments in Syria, were blocked from access and made invisible from Turkey on X. (Engelli Web)

- Gzt.com’s news titled “Green passport opportunity arises for two professional groups” was a repeat of news from 2.5 months ago, and the information that it was a proposal by CHP’s Deniz Demir was also missing, but many sites like Sabah, Gazete Oksijen, and Yeni Şafak quoted the news with this omission.

- In Sözcü’s news titled “'Schengen visa' is coming for green passports,” the number of people with green passports in Turkey was given as 2 million at the beginning and 7 million at the end.

- In Hürriyet’s news titled “Terror finance imprisonment for 2 former CHP mayors,” there was no information that former Sarıyer Mayor Şükrü Genç was convicted for purchasing sweaters produced by workers at Kazova Tekstil and distributing them to those in need.

- The Anadolu Agency, which has a public nature, is conducting a public activity like the “Photos of the Year” voting under the sponsorship of public companies Ajet, Lifebox, and Roketsan.

- In the article titled “Behind the scenes of the attacks on MESEM” in Yeni Şafak, the injuries and deaths of young children employed without safety measures were not mentioned.

- Sözcü quoted the Gazete Pano site’s news titled “Foreclosure came to Kılıçdaroğlu from TÜGVA statement” without citing the source.

- İHA and Türkiye, again confusing “kamelya” (a flower) with “kameriye” (a gazebo), published a vehicle accident with the headline “Landed on a Camellia.”

- I had written that Çimsa, one of the Sabancı Holding companies, canceled the mining project in İntikamtepe after Cumhuriyet’s “They are erasing our history” report; however, the company had made a cancellation announcement one day before the news following the reactions of historian Dr. Selim Erdoğan and the local people.

- Karar newspaper reported the Times Higher Education (THE) research with the headline “Turkish universities could not enter the top 300,” while Hürriyet reported it with “METU is in the top 100 again.”

- The opposition media did not show interest in the “allegation of harassment and violence against a 3-year-old child at the Güzeltepe Child Education Center affiliated with the IMM,” which was brought to the agenda by YeniŞafak.

- Akşam and Hürriyet did not mention that the film’s title means “Sinners” in Turkish in their news titled “Oscar’s most ambitious Sinners.”

FOR YOUR CRITICISM, COMPLAINTS, AND SUGGESTIONS: [email protected]