Turkey and the world's most famous pensioner

The photograph of an elderly man taken in front of an ATM is used whenever there is news about pensioners, much like the stock footage of someone counting money used in economic reports. I keep encountering the same photo in newspapers, news websites, and even on television.

I was curious and investigated; I found that this photo was first published in Milliyet in 2017. Since then, it has been published hundreds of times in outlets ranging from Akşam, Hürriyet, and Sabah newspapers to websites like Haber7, Halk TV, and Gerçek Gündem. It has even been featured on the website of the Ministry of Family and Social Services. Ziraat Bank also edited the photo by placing the bank's logo on the ATM and the screen for its own website. 

 Most recently, this photo appeared in the article 'Two days left for a higher pension' on memurlar.net on December 30, as well as in Sabah's articles 'New salary for millions' on January 2 and 'Millions' salaries have been determined' on January 4. 

The interesting part is that this person is not a pensioner from Turkey. News websites in many countries, such as Portugal, Ukraine, and Spain, have been using this photo for years. Since 2019, it has been published in many countries around the world, most often in news stories related to pensioners.

The photo, taken by Serbian photographer Dobo Kristian, was uploaded to Shutterstock on September 26, 2016, with the caption 'Senior man inserting credit card into ATM,' and later to Istock. It has been in circulation worldwide ever since. The stock site also features other photos of this same person, such as one where he is eating ice cream; he probably had some ice cream after the ATM!

I couldn't find his name, but it is clear that this person is not just Turkey's, but perhaps the world's most famous pensioner. While the media in Turkey no longer has such a habit, the correct practice when using a photograph is to state where it was taken, the year, and most importantly, who the person in the photo is. Using the same 'pensioner' photo for every news story without providing this information is, at the very least, careless.

Our media likely uses it so indiscriminately because it is a photo that does not require a royalty fee, but visuals in news should not be taken so lightly. Images should be current, reflect the content of the news, complement the story, and be attention-grabbing.

Carelessness in the use of visuals is already so widespread that, recently, the Cumhuriyet website used an illustration featuring a mosque, a flag, soldiers, and chains—likely depicting the resistance against the July 15 coup attempt—as a background for a news story titled 'Investigations are being launched for the crime of publicly spreading misleading information to the public.' It is quite difficult to understand its relevance to the news...

THE CHP REFLEX OF THE OPPOSITION MEDIA 

We had no information that an incident had occurred at the CHP Sarıkamış District Congress until the CHP Party Assembly referred Kars Deputy İnan Akgün Alp to the disciplinary board with a request for permanent expulsion. 

However, the Sarıkamış District Congress was held on December 22, and five days had passed since the congress when the Party Assembly decision was announced. I scanned the archives for past news, and there was no report anywhere about what happened at the congress on the day it took place. Only local news sites published the headline 'CHP says Turgut Yurdakul in Sarıkamış' after the congress.

It was only after the Party Assembly decision that it was learned that Deputy İnan Akgün Alp and Kars Provincial Chair Onur Uludaşdemir had argued over the election of the congress chair, and that Uludaşdemir, claiming Alp had cursed at him, had drawn up a report with two Party Assembly members who attended the congress. As far as I can see, these details were only published on the İlke TV website. 

This is a valuable example in terms of reflecting journalistic reflexes. With so many journalists following the CHP, the main opposition party, I would have expected such an incident at a district congress to be reported on the day it happened. Even if we assume the district congress was not followed day-by-day, reporters and writers covering the CHP should have been able to learn about and report on this dispute within a day or two. While both are problematic, I do not know if they failed to learn about it or if they learned about it and chose not to write it. 

It is not just the Sarıkamış District Congress; the problem in the news flow regarding what happens behind the scenes in the CHP is continuous. For example, the information that CHP Elazığ Deputy Gürsel Erol and Chairman Özgür Özel argued during the CHP's closed group meeting was reported only a day after the meeting by Altan Sancar, who was a Sözcü reporter until just a few days ago. Although the CHP Headquarters denied the statements in the report, they indirectly confirmed that a 'dialogue' had taken place.

As a matter of fact, events and disputes behind the scenes in the CHP are published more in the pro-government media than in the opposition media. Yes, in most of those reports, truth and falsehood are mixed, but it is impossible to read the accurate version of those stories in the opposition media...

You may recall that reports regarding the candidacy discussions that took place in the background before the presidential election were also first published there. The opposition media must also be impartial and critical toward the CHP. This is a requirement of journalism and the healthy informing of the public.

WOMEN HEADBUTTING MEN IN TV SERIES 

News reports regarding femicides and cases of violence against women are published almost every day; male violence is discussed and debated.

Recently, however, some TV series have been presenting the exact opposite picture.  In the fourth episode of the series "Annem Ankara," broadcast on Kanal D on December 11, a woman throws a stone and breaks the window of a bread kiosk, injuring a woman there. Following this, the character "Zuhal," played by Bergüzar Korel, goes outside and violently headbutts Seçil, played by Fatma Toptaş. She then grabs the hair of the woman who fell to the ground and threatens her.

In the 33rd episode of the series Yabani, broadcast on Now TV on May 11, there is also a scene where a woman headbutts someone. Asi, played by Rojbin Erden, headbutts the character Alaz, played by Bertan Asllani, with great force; the man is knocked to the ground.

Are there really women in real life who go around headbutting people like this? Where did this even come from? What a wrong message to send in a country where hundreds of women are murdered and subjected to violence every year just to attract attention...

WHERE IS THE APOLOGY FROM DHA, AYDINLIK, AND OKSİJEN?

In my article titled "The Media is Also an Accomplice," I criticized DHA's report claiming that a "Turkish academic developed software to prevent turbulence on airplanes." I wrote in that article last year that "it is easy to deceive journalists in this country."

A woman named Çiğdem İlgün, who claimed to be a lecturer at Bahçeşehir University, held a patent for an invention that prevents turbulence in airplanes, and even secured $27 million in financial support from the University of Waterloo in Canada, convinced DHA reporters, who then reported the story with great enthusiasm. İlgün then used this report, and subsequent stories published on various news sites, to deceive people.

The fraud case filed against Çiğdem İlgün concluded last week. The report titled "Prison sentence for Turbulence Çiğdem," published in Sabah with the byline of Arzu Kaya, was also featured on the Sözcü, Halk TV, and Patronlar Dünyası websites. Sözcü did not cite a source, and the court that issued the verdict was not specified. Türkiye newspaper also reported on this development.

Most importantly, DHA, which published the initial report that led to journalism being used as a tool for fraud, ignored this conviction. The news of Çiğdem İlgün's conviction also did not appear in Oksijen, which had published a story titled "She designed a chip to prevent fear of turbulence on planes" 10 days after DHA. Moreover, it seems DHA's report has been removed from publication; I could not find it, but the reports from Aydınlık and Oksijen are still online.

However, it is primarily their duty to follow this case, publish the result, and correct the false reporting. I hope DHA, Aydınlık, and Oksijen will correct these reports—which, even if unintentionally, contributed to fraud—report on the conviction, and apologize to their readers. 

In a single sentence: 

Yeni Akit, which has been causing friction among journalists' associations, wrote in a report containing discrimination and hate speech that the EU-supported "Media for Democracy/Democracy for Media" project was "conducted by the Journalists' Association, chaired by Vahap Munyar." However, Munyar is the president of the Turkish Journalists' Association, and the project is being conducted by the Journalists' Association in Ankara. 

Sabah responded to Hürriyet's report, "Kanal D, the prime-time leader in the last month of the year, closed 2024 at the top," by publishing a story the following day titled, "ATV, which does not relinquish the title of leader of not just months, but years." 

Türkiye newspaper published the remarks made by Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin at a press conference attended by education editors from pro-government media outlets such as Akşam, Hürriyet, Milliyet, Yeni Akit, and Yeni Şafak, as an exclusive interview under the headline, "Minister Tekin explained to our newspaper."

For the baby gorilla found by customs teams inside a cargo box at Istanbul Airport, the Cumhuriyet newspaper used the term "captured," while the Akşam newspaper used "seized," presenting the animal, which had been abducted from its natural habitat, as if it were a criminal or a fugitive. 

In Nefes's report titled "Sabancı is selling the mansion, Getir founder is buying it," the sentence "Getir.com founder Nazım Salur announced that the sale did not take place" contradicted the headline. 

The Gaza march and the speech by the President's son, Bilal Erdoğan, were broadcast live by the channels A Haber, Akit TV, NTV, CNN Türk, Habertürk, TGRT, Haber Global, TV100, KRT TV, TRT Haber, TRT World, TRT Türk, TV NET, Ülke TV, Ekol TV, and 24 TV.

Sabah, which does not object to the government granting its privileged bureaucrats the opportunity to earn income from multiple organizations and never reports on developments in this regard, published a story claiming that "34 bureaucrats receive two salaries" at the CHP-run Ankara Metropolitan Municipality. 

The pro-government media did not report that one of the deputy chairmen who resigned amid corruption allegations at the Yunus Emre Institute was the husband of Minister of Family and Social Services Mahinur Göktaş, and the other was the son of MHP Deputy Chairman Semih Yalçın.

The pro-government media, which presented the increase in pension payments as if it were good news, ignored the protests held by pensioners.  

The headline in Sabah's sports section, "Those who cannot make a change cannot change the course of events," was a striking example of the unnecessary use of the verb "to make."

Following an increase in critical reports regarding vehicle inspection fees, TüvTürk placed full-page advertisements in Akşam, Hürriyet, Milliyet, Posta, Sabah, Sözcü, Takvim, Türkiye, Yeni Akit, and Yeni Şafak on the first day of the year to praise its operations.

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