Are prosecutor leaks journalism?

Emin Pazarcı from the newspaper Akşam wrote that two separate indictments were being prepared in the investigation into the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB), that the first would exceed 2,000 pages, and that the indictment concerning Ekrem İmamoğlu and 300 defendants would be even more voluminous and would be announced at the end of the month.

Following this post by Emin Pazarcı, CHP spokespeople reacted with, "Wasn't the investigation confidential?" He then responded to those on social media who criticized and reacted to him with insults and profanities such as "Herd of dogs," "You're trash," "Stick it where it fits," "Your mother didn't say that," "Mucilage," "Your mother...", and "F... off." These were unacceptable expressions that do not befit a journalist.

However, it must be admitted that there was no information in what he wrote that would violate the confidentiality of the investigation. What he wrote is a journalistic activity. Of course, it is not possible to say the same for the majority of what is written in the pro-government media regarding investigations into the CHP. Because information regarding the investigations is leaked to the pro-government media in bulk, and joint reports are published.

Let me give an example; on September 11, the statement by contractor Sezgin Köysüren, who was detained in the investigation into the Antalya Metropolitan Municipality, that "the municipality confiscated five shops, three of which were turned into City Restaurants (Kent Lokantası)," was published in Akşam with the headline "City Restaurant in the bribery shop," in Sabah with "Double-layered corruption," and in Yeni Şafak with "They seized the shops and made them City Restaurants." The report in Sabah carried the signature of News Manager Halit Turan, and the report in Yeni Şafak carried the signature of Burak Doğan; both are based in Istanbul!

On September 12, the news that "bribe money was seized in an agricultural warehouse with the confessions of Mayor Kara's nephew" was published along with footage in the Anadolu Agency, İhlas News Agency, and TRT Haber. Supposedly the investigation was confidential, but information and footage had been leaked!

It has almost become public knowledge that information regarding investigations into the CHP is leaked to the pro-government media by the prosecutor's office. Pro-government figure Cem Küçük confirmed the leaking on TGRT Haber by saying, "Chief Public Prosecutor's Offices definitely pass information to journalists after every operation."

Journalist Alican Uludağ also wrote on September 23 that "the judicial organization leaks files concerning CHP-run municipalities to the Presidential Directorate of Communications." As proof of his claims, Uludağ shared an "information note in the form of a news report" that was sent to executives of newspapers and TV stations close to the government regarding the concert investigation into the CHP-run Ankara Metropolitan Municipality.

In the past, FETÖ-linked police officers and prosecutors would send information notes, or even ready-made news reports, to names close to them, and they would publish them exactly as they were. What is being done in the investigations into the CHP is not very different from those leaks of the past. Conducting propaganda activities by reporting such deliberate leaks cannot be seen as "journalistic activity."

PAID CORPORATE NEWS ON AA

The "Business World News" section of Anadolu Agency (AA) has surprised a reader named Anıl Taşdelen. He wrote to me, "It struck me as strange that AA is openly advertising." I looked at the "news" link he sent; it was written to promote the winter collection of a clothing brand; it was truly an advertisement, not news.

Unfortunately, the texts published in the "Business World News" section of Anadolu Agency are directly company bulletins, company promotions, and advertisements. This section of AA had caught my attention before, but I never had the opportunity to write about it.

I, too, had read with astonishment the text titled, "Nut company completes its campaign of gifting 'TOGG' to 30 customers on its 30th anniversary." A reporter's signature had been added to the sweepstakes announcement, which was clearly understood to have been sent by the firm, and it was presented as an "exclusive report."

When I scanned this section, the texts I encountered most often were those of a company called Karmod. At least 6-7 "news" texts regarding this company's activities are published on AA every month. Moreover, "news" such as "The cabin produced by Karmod will be used as a canteen in England" is also published exactly as is in the "Economy" section of AA's English website.

Such an advertising and promotional activity being carried out under the name of "journalism" cannot be without compensation. In fact, AA announced 13 years ago that it would publish these texts for a fee. On January 5, 2012, a report titled "Company bulletins are now paid on AA" appeared in Hürriyet, based on an information letter AA sent to PR companies. The report stated, "Companies that want to have news about their firms published in the relevant bulletin will now have to pay for it."

Regarding this method, which was also criticized by the Turkish Journalists Association at the time, Prof. Dr. Süleyman İrvan wrote in 2019, "No matter how they try to legitimize it, financial relationships should never interfere with journalistic practice."

Publishing company bulletins under the heading of "Business world news" by a news agency like AA is clearly contrary to journalistic principles. In this way, AA presents advertising and public relations activities as news; it deceives its readers and subscribers. News means information, but these "news reports" from AA do not provide information and do not convey the truth.

However, one of AA's "Journalism Principles" is, "There is public interest in the publication of news. Events that do not have public interest are not made into news." It is clear that there is no public interest in the company news I cited; only AA's financial interest is being served.

AA should abandon paid publications or not present these texts as "news." Or at least, it should include labels such as "Sponsored," "Paid publication," or "This is an advertisement."

ONE CANNOT BE A PARTY OFFICIAL AND A JOURNALIST

Mustafa Yılmaz is a journalist who worked as a writer and executive for many years at Milli Gazete, the publication organ of the Felicity Party (SP). About a year ago, he moved into a new lane; he was elected to the General Administrative Board of the SP. Then he became the Deputy Chairman responsible for Promotion, Media, and Communication. In short, he is now a politician.

However, on the evening of October 6, on the "Rota" program hosted by Kürşad Oğuz on Halk TV, the word "Journalist" was written under the window where Mustafa Yılmaz appeared on the screen! This was an incorrect presentation. It is unfair to journalism and the audience, as well as to the party that Mustafa Yılmaz represents.

Perhaps that is why Mustafa Yılmaz felt the need to remind the audience of his political identity at one point while speaking on the program. He said, "As a journalist who is also a Deputy Chairman of the Felicity Party, I can say this." However, it was also inappropriate for him to remind them that his profession was "journalism" there. Because after that sentence, he did not express his ideas as a journalist; he defended his party by saying, "The party that first started the opposition to the AK Party in Turkey is the Felicity Party."

Mustafa Yılmaz is a new example, but we all know that he is not the first, nor will he be the last. Because news channels cannot take a principled stance regarding those who shift to the ranks of politics while being journalists; they present names who are "new politicians but old journalists" to their audience as journalists. This is a misleading attitude. What I don't understand is why they damage the reputation of journalism in such a commonplace way...

THEY CALLED HIM "MAFIA LEADER" ÇATLI, BUT...

Journalist Birsen Altuntaş's report, "The Çatlı film has started shooting," was published in many outlets, including Hürriyet, but none of them contained information about Abdullah Çatlı and the Susurluk accident in which he died.

Sites such as Haber3, Haberler.com, NTV, Türkiye, Türkgün, and Yeni Şafak were content with saying, "who lost his life in the Susurluk accident that occurred in 1996."

Only on TGRT Haber was the information added that "deep state relations came to light" in the Susurluk accident. Hürriyet, differently, defined Abdullah Çatlı as a "mafia leader" under the headline "The life of the mafia leader is becoming a film."

Yet, the Susurluk accident did not happen yesterday; most of today's youth do not know about this accident, nor do they know Abdullah Çatlı. Just writing "who lost his life in the 1996 Susurluk accident" is not enough to inform the reader. These are incomplete, superficial, and unresearched reports.

However, Abdullah Çatlı, a former head of the Idealist Hearths (Ülkü Ocakları), was a dark figure who was wanted for the murders of seven TİP-affiliated youths and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bedrettin Cömert, was accused of helping the escape of journalist Abdi İpekçi's killer M. Ali Ağca and planning the assassination attempt on the Pope, and whose fingerprints were found on the tape on the weapon used in the murder of "King of Casinos" Ömer Lütfü Topal. In the "Second MİT Report" written by MİT Counter-Terrorism Department Head Mehmet Eymür, it was written that he "formed an organization under the guise of fighting against the PKK and leftist organizations." The "Susurluk accident" was also a scandal where the dirty relationship between the state, mafia, and politics was exposed.

It was also noteworthy that the report "The life of the mafia leader is becoming a film," which was published in the printed version of Hürriyet, was not published on its website. Why, I wonder?

"DID NONE OF YOUR MOTHERS DIE?"

Again, after a death, the same mistakes were repeated. After the artist Güllü died by falling from a window, the journalist community published so many false reports and comments full of suspicions in the excitement of creating a story that would attract attention that people could not even experience their grief.

Moreover, the media, caught up in the atmosphere they created themselves, did not even hear or understand the cries of the artist Güllü's son, Tuğberk Yağız Gülter, and her sister, Tuyan Ülkem Gülter.

When Tuğberk Yağız Gülter appeared before the cameras with his sister, he began his words by saying, "I am addressing all of Turkey, you did not let us experience our grief." He continued, "Slander was cast upon us. You cried with my mother's songs, you did not let us cry. You dragged us through the mud." Up to this point, he seemed to be accusing everyone in general, but then he brought the subject to the media:

"Did none of you, none of those holding cameras, extending microphones, or making comments, have a mother who died? How can you not hear the screams? Where is Turkey's conscience?"

In fact, he was addressing the media directly; he was criticizing us journalists. I scanned the reports; no one took it upon themselves. How weak the sense of empathy has become in the media...

In a single sentence:

When gourmet Vedat Milor shared a visual mocking private school fees by a student's parent, the sites Dünya, Gerçek Gündem, Halktv.com, GZT, Nefes, Tele1, Sputnik, and Süper Haber reported, "Vedat Milor enrolled his son in a private school," but Milor does not have a son.

The MHP's publication organ, Türkgün newspaper, did not report on the murder of MHP-affiliated lawyer Serdar Öktem, who was one of the defendants in the trial for the murder of former Idealist Hearths head Sinan Ateş.

The pro-government media did not see any news value in a woman in İzmit chasing a university student into a store she had fled into and beating her for wearing a miniskirt.

The campaign that started in Milliyet for the reopening of the gold mine that was closed after the accident that led to the deaths of nine people in İliç, Erzincan, continued this week in Habertürk and Akşam.

The Halkbank case in the US, which could not be asked to President Erdoğan on the plane upon his return from the Washington trip, was able to be asked upon his return from Baku.

The participation of Revna Demirören, wife of Demirören Holding Chairman of the Board Yıldırım Demirören, in a Gaza aid event was reported in Hürriyet, Milliyet, Posta, and CNN Türk.

Akşam published a full-page promotion for the AKP-run Ordu Metropolitan Municipality without adding a warning that it was an advertisement.

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