Are investigations news, but trials are not?

The way the media follows investigations and trials caught the attention of retired academic Göktan Ay, who asked:

“Our media, columnists, and regular TV guests give pages of coverage, talk, and make allegations when a few people are detained. But when those people are ‘released,’ it is not even reported, or given a small space in a column. What about personal rights?”

A justified complaint. Our days now begin with news of new operations. The era of “a new operation every day,” which began with operations targeting CHP-run municipalities, continues with operations involving drugs, money laundering, betting, match-fixing, etc.

Along with these operations, news based on information obtained from or leaked by prosecutors' offices is published in full detail. Naturally, most of these are reports that accuse, label, and discredit the suspects. Defense arguments, for the most part, do not become news or are published very briefly. Defendants primarily speak during the judicial process, and information in their favor can only emerge there.

However, when investigations reach the trial stage, the media loses interest. So much so that even the trials of operations that were published for days during the investigation phase are not followed. For example, the “Newborn” case, which was once constantly in the headlines. On December 27, the seventh hearing of this case took place. That session was important because an interim decision was expected. However, journalist Gülseven Özkan wrote in her post, “Currently, I am the only journalist in the courtroom, along with my colleague from Anadolu Agency.” Consequently, the court's decision regarding the resolution of contradictions between Forensic Medicine reports did not find much space in the media…

Except for Müyesser Yıldız, no one is following even the July 15 coup attempt trials. The public learned of the confession by defendant former Lieutenant Colonel Savaş Kabaklı, that “he removed the name of General Hulusi Akar, who was the Chief of General Staff at the time, from documents related to the Roboski (Uludere) incident,” thanks to Yıldız following the hearings.

If journalists do not carefully follow trials as well, a balance cannot be established between accusation and defense; the public cannot be provided with accurate and complete information about the fate of what was published. Failing to announce that people who were initially declared guilty have been acquitted leads to that person remaining guilty in the public memory, which is both a lack of principle and a lack of conscience.