AA keeps correcting Hakan Fidan!

Anadolu Agency (AA) editors have taken on a new task for some time now: filtering out sharp words and sentences from Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan's speeches that could cause problems for the government, and correcting them before publication...

The latest example was Fidan's sentences during a press conference in New York, where he emphasized that the production of the KAAN aircraft had stopped due to sanctions imposed by the US on Turkey:

"...There are the engines for the KAAN that we are waiting to receive, they are currently waiting in the US Congress. Their license has been suspended. In other words, their license must be activated and the engines must arrive so that the production of the KAANs can begin."

However, these sentences by Fidan were absent from AA's report. The KAAN aircraft were only mentioned in the sentence, "Fidan, who stated that technical issues such as the F-35 and the KAAN National Combat Aircraft engines are pending in the US Congress, continued as follows." The sentences regarding the suspension of the aircraft's production had been removed from the speech. Even the videos added to the report did not contain that section. Unlike AA, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not find such a cleanup necessary on its website.

It was inevitable that these sentences by Fidan would attract the attention of opposition parties and the opposition media. When the wave of criticism grew, Defense Industry President Haluk Görgün had to deny Fidan's words, and the pro-government media had to start a campaign claiming that a domestic engine would be produced for the KAAN. Fidan also appeared on TRT Haber to try to correct his words.

There are other examples proving that the deletions made by AA editors in Fidan's speeches continue "systematically":

"Cheap politics" in Greece: In a TGRT broadcast he attended on August 28, Fidan emphasized that Turkey is the "number one determining issue" in Greek domestic politics and said, "This is very cheap politics." But this characterization, which was also in the text on the ministry's website, was not in AA's report. AA did not respond to the report by Cumhuriyet, which noticed the omission and wrote about this deletion.

"The tyrant's oppression" in Egypt: On August 9, at a joint press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty in El Alamein, Fidan said, "The tyrant will be erased from history along with his oppression. In other words, you will see that this will happen to Netanyahu as well." In Anadolu Agency's report titled "Fidan: We reject Israel's intention to completely occupy Gaza to the end," these sentences had been cleaned up.

Yet these sentences were important; indeed, Mehmet Yılmaz wrote in T24, "If Hakan Fidan said 'Israel will be erased from history' consciously, this must indicate that Turkey's Israel policy has completely changed." Haber Global also reported it with the headline "Israel will be erased from history."

It cannot be said that these deletions and corrections in AA's reports are made out of journalistic concern. There must be a situation here that goes beyond journalistic concerns. Because it cannot be the job of a journalist to filter out and correct words and sentences from the speeches of a Foreign Minister.

Do the AA editors make these deletions on their own so as not to cause trouble for the government, or does someone else intervene?

What NTV sacrificed

Hüseyin Günay is not the first journalist that NTV has sacrificed without even making a statement due to "on-air accidents."

Oğuz Haksever, not realizing his microphone was open, had muttered to himself about President Erdoğan's words, "I don't say Yassıada, I say Yaslıada," saying, "What kind of 'yaslı' (mournful), you've ruined it." Veteran broadcaster Haksever was pulled from the screen after these words were heard on air; two months later, in July 2019, he was forced to retire.

Ahmet Yeşiltepe was also subjected to a social media lynching last year when he said during a live broadcast regarding Iran's missile attack on Israel that he was worried about Israeli civilians also being harmed. NTV terminated the contract of Foreign News Director Yeşiltepe.

Now, NTV has fired Hüseyin Günay because he expressed with slang words that Turkey did not come out ahead from President Erdoğan's meeting with President Trump. Of course, the reflection of those expressions of Günay on the screen did not create a pleasant picture. But he was saying these during a private conversation with AA Cameraman Yasin Öztürk in the White House garden. He was also unaware that the Associated Press's fixed camera was recording his conversation. I don't know who searched for and found this recording and spread it on social media, but they are the ones who are truly malicious.

The common point of these on-air accidents is that all three are directed at the political power or disturb government circles. When it comes to relations with the AKP, NTV executives immediately sacrifice experienced names regardless of who they are. Under these circumstances, how independently and freely can programmers and journalists broadcast...

Science journalism guide

Within the scope of a project carried out by Prof. Dr. Mesut Yücebaş from Gaziantep University Faculty of Communication, two guidebooks titled "Media Guide for Scientists" and "Science Journalism Guide for Journalists" were prepared. The goal is to contribute to science journalism.

In the "Science Journalism Guide," journalists who will do science journalism are given guidance on relationships with scientists, evaluation of scientific sources, and the presentation of science news. While the importance of skepticism and diversification of sources in science news is emphasized, it is recommended to abandon academic and bureaucratic style and use plain language:

"Science journalists can increase the appeal if they move away from the technical and report language that is serious, not fluent, and does not include the reader in the text with the style they prefer. A science journalist can turn science into a festive science for readers and viewers as much as it is for themselves."

The guide also suggests that "scientists should not be forced to express opinions outside their own fields." But this is, of course, an approach that not only journalists but also scientists should adopt. Because we encounter so many faculty members who talk outside their fields...

Interested journalist friends can find the guides on the university's website. I hope these guides contribute to the development of science journalism in our media.

Miners on a media offensive

Mining companies have started a media campaign. The first step was the Sözcü newspaper, which wrote that "olive trees were cut down in Akbelen." In a statement sent to Sözcü, Yeniköy Kemerköy Energy argued that "the trees were not cut down, 82 thousand trees would be moved."

Immediately after, the same company took journalists from pro-government newspapers Akşam, Dünya, Milliyet, Sabah, Türkiye, and Yeni Şafak to the region; they had news published that 151 trees moved from Milas "sprouted in one week." In the news, olive trees that were 100 percent pruned and only their trunks moved looked as if they had turned green, but in fact, the photos were taken in a misleading way as if the branches of the green olive trees in the background were on the pruned trees.

Milliyet newspaper also defended the reopening of the gold mine that was closed after the stored soil landslide that caused the death of nine people in İliç, Erzincan this week. And for two whole pages! The sponsor of the pages, which were prepared with a one-sided perspective and did not contain a critical approach, was unclear!

Respect for labor in news

Karar columnist Prof. Dr. Uğur Emek emphasized in his article on "Child poverty" that 35.3 percent of children in Turkey, that is, 7 million 39 thousand children, are poor. Based on Turkish Statistical Institute data, he listed one by one the rates and numbers of children who cannot eat meat or fish, cannot buy new clothes, cannot go on vacation, do not have toys, and cannot go to school.

Two days later, he watched the news of "7 million children are hungry in Turkey" on the main news bulletin presented by Ece Üner on Halk TV. When no source was given in the news, he wrote to me on social media, arguing that "labor theft" was committed, and asked me to investigate the issue as the Media Ombudsman.

I first asked Halk TV Editor-in-Chief Suat Toktaş; he said, "As Halk TV, we are a channel that respects labor and always provides references to sources." He provided the information, "Uğur Emek is a respected economist whom we respect and host as a guest on our screen. However, the source of the news you mentioned is not Mr. Emek, but the ANKA news agency."

I checked, and indeed, Halk TV's news was not taken from Uğur Emek's article on September 21, but from the article titled "Turkey's human capital is melting rapidly," which was put into service on September 23 with the signature of ANKA's economy writer Zülfikar Doğan.

Both articles have almost the same numerical data calculated based on similar rates, but for example, Uğur Emek wrote, "3.8 million of our children cannot read books appropriate for their age"; Zülfikar Doğan said, "Approximately 4 million children cannot read books, novels, stories, magazines, comics, etc. appropriate for their age, and do not have access to such cultural-educational activities." Zülfikar Doğan's sentence is also included in Halk TV's news.

After these findings, I also spoke with Zülfikar Doğan; he told me, "I analyzed human capital and child research together based on TÜİK data and added my own interpretations," and said that he did not quote from Uğur Emek's article.

On this occasion, I must also state that not citing sources has become commonplace. Not only on TV but also in newspapers and news sites, sources and origins are not given in most of the news. Especially the agencies subscribed to are completely skipped. A very wrong, unfair, and unjust practice...

In one sentence:

Yeni Şafak forgot to delete the note from the artificial intelligence it had write the Marmara earthquake news: "I can also rearrange this news in a scarier, warning-focused, or more informative, calm tone if you want. Which one would you like?" (Musa Özuğurlu)

Yeni Akit, which published a photo of Lieutenant Ebru Eroğlu, who was dismissed from the army, in civilian clothes, insulted her by writing, "All the feelings in your heart are reflected on your face," and the Ensonhaber site by writing, "Your face and eyes have opened up, girl."

Yeni Şafak wrote that TOGG would be sold cheaper in Germany than in Turkey, but this information was missing in Sabah's news, "TOGG on the roads of Germany in January 2026."

Günaydın columnist Yüksel Aytuğ wrote as if it were new without realizing that the news "Afet, for whom they became murderers, turned out to be a man" was published last year and turned out to be unfounded; and the title of the article was "gaffe podium." (Rahmi Yıldırım)

Türkiye newspaper reported the mistake of Ekrem İmamoğlu's article being served before it was published in Le Monde as "Fake article comedy" and said, "it is a matter of curiosity whether it will be published after this hour," but did not report it when the article was published.

Sabah, Star, Takvim, TVNET, Yeni Asır, Yeni Şafak, and Süper Haber had comedian Egemen Şimşek arrested by conducting a campaign of "He insulted the prophets Moses and Jesus."

Yasemin Salih from Hürriyet watched a Turkish company's fashion show in Italy as a guest; she wrote, "First she opened the factory, then she took the stage."

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