Can a denial be made with 'probably'?

Minister of Justice Akın Gürlek gave the following response to journalists who recalled the words of DEM Party Co-Chairs Tülay Hatimoğulları and Tuncer Bakırhan that "a private residence is being built for Abdullah Öcalan on İmralı":

"There is no such thing there. Since it is an administrative campus, new buildings or places where needed can probably be built there, but there is no situation of a private residence being built."

These words of Minister Gürlek were reported in the media with headlines such as "Denial from Gürlek" and "Claim of residence for Öcalan is a lie." However, Gürlek uses the word "probably" after saying "There is no such thing there"; he does not even say that a new building is being constructed for administrative needs; he only says "it can be built"! He also does not provide details about the construction on İmralı Island.

This shows that Minister Gürlek is not speaking with "information," but is speculating by saying "probably," and is talking about a possibility. The journalist colleagues who asked the question should have pressed him on this word "probably." They may not have found the opportunity to press him during a casual conversation, but then Gürlek's response does not qualify as a "denial."

If, on the other hand, Gürlek accidentally used the words "probably" and "can be built," the issue could have been clarified by a detailed statement from the ministry. That was not done either. In this case, the task of finding the truth and clarifying the issue of a private residence for Öcalan falls once again to the journalists.

They mistook a sponsorship plaque for an award

Ankara University's awards caught my attention with A Haber's news titled "A meaningful award from Ankara University to A Haber and Sabah Newspaper."

There was also news about the award in Milliyet. These reports stated that Anadolu Agency, TRT, NTV, A Haber, TGRT, Kanal 7, Milliyet, Sabah, and Yeni Şafak received awards at the "Ankara University's 3rd Traditional Award Ceremony." You would think this ceremony was organized for media awards.

However, it was understood from the news on Ankara University's website that the university organized this ceremony primarily to reward scientists and academic institutions. Media organizations were given plaques, not awards.

Indeed, the news on the university's website titled "Ankara University awards find their owners" does not mention that awards were given to the media; it said, "While plaques were presented to the representatives of the organizations that were media sponsors of the ceremony..."

I also watched the footage of the ceremony; when media representatives were called to the stage, the screen in the background did not say "Media awards," but rather "Our media sponsors" and a list appeared.

As the presenter began calling the journalists to the stage, he said, "Now it is time for our valuable press members who have had great support in the preparation of this night. We will present our media awards at this point, first of all," but it was clear that he was also confused. At one point, he said, "They are with us to receive our plaque"; and finally, he spoke by saying, "If there are valuable names among our media representatives who are among our sponsors and are entitled to an award, whom we cannot see, if they also come to the stage, we will definitely announce them..."

It seems that the media organizations, all of which are pro-government, confused "award" with "plaque"! The university gave a thank-you plaque to the media organizations that were sponsors, not an award!

They cannot be unaware of the difference between a thank-you plaque and an award. They have tried to deceive the reader and the viewer by extracting unnecessary boasting from a thank-you plaque, what a pity...

Anadolu Agency wrote "award" in the photo captions, but I don't know if it's because they realized this distortion, they later deleted the news about the ceremony...

Alican and İsmail are inside, their news is outside

Alican Uludağ's news titled "Building collapsed in Gebze: Experts said the cause was the 'metro'," which he wrote from Silivri Prison, was the product of his follow-up. Despite being imprisoned, he continued to seek justice for the four people who died in the building that collapsed in Gebze; he had reached the expert committee's report.

In the news published in Deutsche Welle Turkish, it was reported that "the report determined that the metro construction passing underneath had an impact on the collapse of the building." The news, which was cited on many sites, was also put on the front page of the Karar newspaper with the headline "Who will be held accountable?"

The pro-government media, which did not report on this report, presented a new report five days later. As can be expected, this report, contrary to what Alican Uludağ wrote, exonerated the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure and the construction company. İHA and Türkiye published this report with the headline "It was not the metro that destroyed the building, but faulty construction and weak ground," and Yeni Şafak with the headline "Expert: The cause of the collapse is weak ground."

However, the report that Alican Uludağ wrote was not prepared by random people, but by an eight-person committee consisting of civil and geological engineers and architects established by the prosecutor's office; their reports were also included in the case file. The pro-government media could not be impartial and fair in the face of the data.

The pro-government media, which tried to devalue the news written by Alican Uludağ, also turned a blind eye to the illegality of the Istanbul 26th Criminal Court of First Instance both deciding that it lacked jurisdiction and accepting the indictment in which he was requested to be sentenced to 19 years and 4 months in prison.

Even if the pro-government media wants to ignore it, BirGün reporter İsmail Arı, who has been in prison for 15 days like Alican Uludağ, continues to do journalism; he overcomes the walls.

İsmail Arı, in his news titled "MHP executive in the Ayhan Bora Kaplan case," reported that it was said in the phone correspondence of the gang members, "The business will explode at the MHP Group Meeting tomorrow. Let it come to me, I will send it to you too. İzzet U. is about to complete the text." After the news, threats rained down on İsmail Arı from social media, and he was detained a day later; then he was arrested.

But İsmail Arı's news published in BirGün had already been recorded, the "relationship" that was tried to be covered up had come to light! Its effect within the MHP also emerged about a week later; İzzet Ulvi Yönter, whose name was mentioned as "İzzet U." in the news, had to resign from his position as MHP Deputy Chairman a week after that news.

Even though Alican Uludağ and İsmail Arı were thrown into prison on the grounds of their journalistic activities, their news, which "publicly disseminates information that enlightens the public," continues to echo outside.

5G advertisements again to the pro-government media

Cafer Mahiroğlu complained that Halk TV, which he owns, was "kept out of advertising campaigns prepared with state resources" for 5G, and argued that this was "discrimination."

He is very right. However, the advertising/announcement embargo is not only applied to Halk TV; the entire opposition media is the target of the embargo. In 5G advertisements, not only Halk TV but almost the entire opposition media was excluded.

GSM companies Türk Telekom and Turkcell are considered public; both are in the Turkey Wealth Fund. These two companies also launched a major campaign due to the transition to 5G; first, on March 31, Telekom gave full-page advertisements to 15 newspapers, including Cumhuriyet.

The next day, Turkcell's advertisement appeared on the back page of 13 newspapers. In addition to the full-page advertisement on the back page, Turkcell also gave advertisements to the front pages of five newspapers, over the logo. Turkcell carried out its campaign on TV and digital with the famous basketball player Shaquille O'Neal, to whom it paid millions.

All of the newspapers that Türk Telekom and Turkcell gave advertisements to were pro-government. There is only one advertisement that Türk Telekom gave to Cumhuriyet, that's all. I could not identify the advertisements of Türk Telekom and Turkcell on digital media and televisions one by one, but they also carried out a campaign that lasted for days in those media and again favored the pro-government media.

Unlike Türk Telekom and Turkcell, which also used 5G as an opportunity to provide financial support to the pro-government media, Vodafone, which is a private company, carried out a campaign that considered the market. It gave weight to televisions and digital media instead of print media. Vodafone's films, in which actors Demet Evgar and Cengiz Bozkurt were the advertising faces, which preferred general TV channels, were broadcast on Now TV as well as pro-government channels.

As part of the campaign, they also held "special" interviews with journalists and TV presenters such as Cüneyt Özdemir, Cansu Canan Özgen, Simge Fıstıkoğlu, Şelale Kadak, and Duygu Demirdağ.

The pro-government media presented 5G, from which it earned great profits through advertisements, in its news as if a communication revolution had been made. Although 5G has only been switched to in provincial centers for now, they published news as if it had been switched to in all of Turkey. They also never mentioned that the 5G tender was held two years ago and that more than a hundred countries had switched to 5G before Turkey...

Sabah and Yeni Akit censored Trump

US President Donald Trump described President Tayyip Erdoğan as a "great leader"; then he added:

"Turkey was wonderful. Actually, it was great; they stayed out of the things we didn't want them to get into."

Sabah gave Trump's words with the headline "Historic praise from Trump to Erdoğan." However, in the news, while only quoting Trump's words "Turkey is a wonderful country and Erdoğan is an excellent leader," it cut the part "They stayed out of the things we didn't want them to get into." They did this cutting work both in digital and in print.

Yeni Akit did the same cutting with a different method. They published a text based entirely on commentary on their webpage with the headline "Trump said 'Great leader' for Erdoğan, Ekrem cracked in prison." Like Sabah, they also cut Trump's second sentence.

By censoring Trump, they tried to prevent their readers and viewers from learning the words "They stayed out of the things we didn't want them to get into." Of course, taking half of a speech and extracting praise for Erdoğan from there, while censoring the other half that they are worried might cause criticism, is not journalism but a practice that propagandists can do.

In one sentence:

Yeni Akit published an artificial intelligence-generated photo in its news "Mysterious safes in the house of the Uşak mayor," showing as if there were dozens of phones despite the fact that two mobile phones were found in the safe; it later removed the photo but did not change the phrase "dozens of phones."

Sabah tried to justify the arrest of Esra Işık, one of the Akbelen villagers who owned her land and house, with the news "Akbelen provocateur arrested for threat."

Sites like TRT Haber and Haber7 did not write that the mayor hired the woman he was in a relationship with at the municipality in the news "Dismissal of Köşk Mayor from AKP"; they also did not use a photo.

CHP Eskişehir Deputy Utku Çakırözer noted in the Press Freedom Report that 40 journalists were tried, 7 journalists were detained, and 2 were arrested last month.

Akşam published the promotion of the AKP-run Bağcılar Municipality, Milliyet published the promotion of the Ordu Metropolitan Municipality, and Yeni Şafak published the promotion of the Tokat Municipality without putting an "advertisement" warning.

Serdar Cebe repeated the gold mining demonstration that Korcan Karar did three years ago and searched for gold in the studio with a detector; then he boasted by saying, "Sözcü news is as valuable as gold."

ATV did not state that this shopping mall was Armada in its news "A shopping mall in Ankara decided to implement a ban on entry for those under 18 without a guardian on weekends."

İHA not only gave incorrect information about "bipolar disorder" in its news "The cry of a mother whose daughter wants to be a headliner," but also categorized and humiliated these patients.

Türkiye newspaper announced that its author's article was not published on the day it was supposed to be with the note, "Due to the density of our content, we will publish our author İsa Karakaş's article tomorrow."

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