Journalists reduced to props at the Interior Ministry

Mustafa Çiftçi held his first "press meeting" since his appointment to the Ministry of Interior, gathering with representatives of media organizations in Ankara.

Naturally, as is the case with other ministers, the pro-government media dominated the room; from the opposition media, only Saygı Öztürk from Sözcü and Yusuf Ziya Cömert from Karar were invited to the meeting.

Although Saygı Öztürk wrote that "due to his 7.5 years of experience as a provincial governor, Çiftçi knows the state and understands what to say and where to draw the line," Minister Çiftçi does not seem to be so sure of this himself. For Yusuf Ziya Cömert wrote that there was "no question-and-answer session" at the meeting, and Deniz Zeyrek, who was not invited, stated in his column that journalists were sent a "vetted and transcribed text" after the fact.

It seems the journalists, unable to ask questions, simply summarized the provided transcript, added a headline, and published it as news. The gathering in Ankara was not a press conference, but rather a performance by Minister Çiftçi where journalists were used as decorative elements…

Three days later, Minister Çiftçi met with media executives in Istanbul. This time, those invited were entirely from the pro-government media, with the exception of Karar, Milli Gazete, and Odatv. Unlike in Ankara, there was a question-and-answer session this time, and the minister answered four questions.

I hope that journalists there were not also sent a "vetted text" afterward, as they were in Ankara. A journalist should produce their own transcript. They should also persist in asking questions; if they are not allowed to do so, they should state this in their article or report.

How did the Italian journalist deceive?

Italian journalist Tommaso Debenedetti is famous for deceiving the media. He publishes fake posts on social media to prove that journalists' verification reflexes have weakened.

He succeeds in deceiving them every time. Among those for whom he has spread fake news of death are Pope Benedict XVI and Fidel Castro, as well as Pedro Almodóvar and Milan Kundera; all of his posts have achieved their goal and become news in many countries.

One of the celebrities for whom Debenedetti spread fake news of death is the Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro. In 2022, he wrote that Kazuo Ishiguro had died from a fake account he opened in the name of a publisher on social media. Within minutes, it spread across the world, first on social media and then thanks to journalists who, in their haste to be fast, reported everything they saw without verifying it. Debenedetti soon wrote that the account was fake and that Kazuo Ishiguro was alive, and deleted his post…

Four years have passed. On April 22, the news that Kazuo Ishiguro had died was shared from an account opened in the name of Ingrid Carlberg from the Swedish Academy. As in other countries, many news sites in Turkey, including BirGün, Cumhuriyet, Dünya, Evrensel, Gerçek Gündem, Muhalif, and Odatv, published the news that the famous author had died. In the reports titled "Famous Nobel Prize-winning author has passed away," the information "announced by the Swedish Academy" was given as the source.

However, the post on Carlberg's account was soon deleted and replaced with a post that read, "This account is a fake account created by Italian journalist Tommaso Debenedetti. Kazuo Ishiguro is alive." Debenedetti had managed to trap journalists once again!

When similar warnings came from other X accounts, most news sites deleted the news of Ishiguro's death. However, when I last checked, the news was still up on the Dünya, Muhalif, and Odatv sites.

I hope this incident serves as a lesson to my journalist colleagues that they should not immediately report everything they see on social media without verifying it…

Adnan Oktar's A9 remains, Tele1 is up for sale

Sabah had announced the seizure of Can Holding with the headline, "The biggest money laundering operation in the history of the Republic of Turkey."

The television channels sold by Ciner Holding to Can Holding, including Habertürk, Show TV, and Bloomberg HT, were also transferred to the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) on the same day. With this "money laundering operation" on September 11, 2025, Kemal Can, one of the owners of Can Holding, was detained; Mehmet Şakir Can and Murat Can were also sought.

About a month and a half after Can Holding, on October 24, 2025, an operation was carried out against Tele1. Tele1 Editor-in-Chief Merdan Yanardağ was accused of "espionage" along with Ekrem İmamoğlu and Necati Özkan; with the operation, Tele1 and the ABC RD-TV company were transferred to the TMSF.

The TMSF's practices as a trustee for Can Holding's television channels and Tele1 were different. There were no significant changes in the broadcasts of Habertürk, Bloomberg HT, and Show TV; they continued as they were. However, they turned Tele1, an important component of the opposition media, from a news channel into a channel that only broadcasts old movies and series, and zeroed out its viewership ratings.

Months passed; Kemal Can from Can Holding was released; fugitives Mehmet Şakir Can and Murat Can also surrendered and were released on the same day on the condition of house arrest. Merdan Yanardağ, however, is still in prison. Let alone being able to defend himself, he has not even been able to appear before a judge yet. But the TMSF has already announced that Tele1 will be sold at auction on June 17.

There are currently 23 media companies under TMSF management. While Can Holding's channels, Gain Medya, and even Adnan Hoca's A9 TV remain, they are preparing to sell the channel in a hurry and for a very low price of 28 million lira. So much so that the TMSF had put Flash Haber up for sale last year with an estimated value of 84 million TL, and EkoTürk for 26 million lira. The price they set for Tele1 months later shows that they are trying to get rid of it as soon as possible.

Once Tele1 is sold, it will be irrevocably eliminated. Even after Merdan Yanardağ is acquitted, getting the channel back will be a miracle. "Espionage" is just an excuse; the real target is Tele1. They care neither about freedom of the press and expression nor about the presumption of innocence and the right to property.

What is the governor doing on a journalism trip?

The criticism by Mevlüt Yeni, the former president of the Antalya Journalists Association, that "the media bridge established 26 years ago with the Nuremberg Press Club has been shaken," has sparked a debate within the association.

The current president of the association, İdris Taş, argued that this criticism was not true and that the cooperation with Nuremberg was continuing to strengthen. A sentence in his statement caught my attention:

"Indeed, our last visit took place in an extremely productive and constructive atmosphere with the participation of the Governor of Antalya."

It is problematic behavior for a professional journalism organization to take the city's governor on an overseas trip, and it is very sad that they see this as a matter of pride. Like the association, the then-Antalya Governor Ersin Yazıcı, who participated in that trip in 2022, also proudly announced this trip on the governorate's website at the time. He described the trip, which he attended with his wife Hanife Yazıcı, as a "working visit"! Whatever contribution the governor and his wife made to journalistic activities…

Overdose in journalist-police relations

Sabah newspaper News Manager Halit Turan responded with a post to the accusations made against him and News Coordinator Abdurrahman Şimşek by former police officers tried in the "Ayhan Bora Kaplan criminal organization" case.

The part where he addressed the then-Deputy Chief of the Organized Crime Branch, Şevket Demircan, was noteworthy in terms of demonstrating the journalist-police relationship:

"Şevket Demircan: We are watching your 'victimhood' theater with astonishment. Mr. Chief, has your memory weakened? You were the one who leaked information about the Ayhan Bora Kaplan organization and said, 'Make it news!' Accusing the journalist you used as a source yesterday of a setup today is nothing but a cheap tactic. You were constantly pressuring us to 'drop it on Twitter.'

Are you trying to make us fodder for FETÖ now? If you are looking for a setup, look at those WhatsApp records you thought you deleted and your own notes; I have them all just as they were on the first day. The truth has one trait: It comes out sooner or later."

Yes, a decision of non-prosecution was also given for Halit Turan, Abdurrahman Şimşek, and the other accused journalists; but these lines by Halit Turan show how intertwined they were with those police officers in the past. The police were so close to these two names that they ceased to be "news sources" and began to pressure them to "drop it on Twitter." The cooperation far exceeded the boundaries of journalism…

They ignored the mine workers

The pro-government media did not report a single line or a single second about the mine workers who walked from Eskişehir to Ankara to receive their unpaid severance and wages.

But while the miners were continuing their protests in Ankara, last week Akşam, Habertürk, and Türkiye newspapers, as well as Bengütürk TV, published news that "Civil servants whose salaries were not paid in Karşıyaka Municipality revolted," and Sabah and A Haber published news that "750 civil servants are on strike in Buca Municipality."

These reports were about CHP-run municipalities. The pro-government media, which ignored Yıldızlar Holding's failure to pay workers' wages, did not refrain from reporting when the target was the CHP.

Opposition media outlets BirGün, Evrensel, Halktv, Nefes, and T24, however, reported on the salary and severance problems in these CHP municipalities, just as they did on the mine workers' protest. This is the right thing to do.

The missing pieces in Kanye West news

The news titled "Kanye West is coming to Istanbul. He will break his own record at the 100,000-person concert," published on NTV's website and sourced from İHA, lacked information.

The report only included a sentence from the organizer such as, "With the cancellation of the France concert, the demand for Istanbul has increased even more." However, by April 18, when the news was published, Kanye West's concerts in the United Kingdom and Poland, as well as France, had also been canceled.

Moreover, the report did not explain to the reader why the France concert was canceled; this information was also missing. The reason for the concert cancellations and the reactions was that the famous rapper had previously expressed his admiration for Adolf Hitler and the Nazis and sold t-shirts with swastikas on his website. His apology before the European tour was not enough to calm the reactions.

Interestingly, in the news titled "FC Basel obstacle for Kanye West: Another concert canceled," published on the Independent Türkçe website one day after NTV's report, which announced that the Switzerland concert was also canceled, there was no mention of the concert to be held in Istanbul on May 30. Furthermore, Sweden and Switzerland were confused in the report, and FC Basel was referred to as a "Swedish football club."

In one sentence:

Hürriyet carried "illegal betting" news to its front page for two days in a row with the headlines "Prison is coming for those who play illegal betting" and "36 billion TL illegal betting raid."

Akşam and Yeni Şafak newspapers published the page organized by the AKP-run Ümraniye Municipality for promotion without adding a warning that it was an "advertisement."

Yeni Şafak extensively reported on the newspaper's owner, Albayrak Group, operating two main ports in Equatorial Guinea, Albayrak Finance's press conference, and its tractor campaign.

The Star website reported on Germany sending troops to the Strait of Hormuz with the headline "Proposal to send troops accepted," as if the entire "army" were to be deployed.

The pro-government media ignored the US rejecting the visa application of former AKP deputy and writer Mehmet Metiner.

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