Warmongers are at it again

For some time now, articles calling for war against Israel have been appearing in the pro-government media. One of the leading pro-war writers is Rahim Er from the Türkiye newspaper. In his July 29 piece titled "The Army to Gaza," he states, "Unless the lions of the Prophet's Hearth are stationed in Gaza and Jerusalem, blood and tears will not cease in Palestine," and issues a call for "The Army to Gaza."

Following President Erdoğan's remarks on August 1, "God willing, we will pray a prayer of gratitude shoulder to shoulder in Gaza," there has been an increase in pro-war articles in the pro-government media.

In Yeni Şafak, İbrahim Karagül began his August 5 article by saying, "That prayer will also be performed in Gaza," and wrote, "Every step must now strike Israel. An open attack has approached the 'inevitable'."

Turgay Güler also penned an article in the Akşam newspaper on August 12 titled "The Turkish Soldier to Gaza." Güler, who stated in his article that "Undoubtedly, Israel's military power is nothing more than the buzzing of a fly against Turkey," ended it by saying, "The time has come for Turkey to save human dignity." In the same newspaper, Hüseyin Besli said, "The elimination of the SDF will be Turkey's first hot contact with Israel, and thus Turkey will have taught Israel a lesson for the first time."

Those writing these lines seem to have forgotten the cost of participating in the civil war in Syria, the massive destruction there, and that Israel is under US protection. Even MHP Chairman Devlet Bahçeli, who said two years ago that "undertaking the mission of protecting and watching over Gaza is the legacy of our ancestors," is now talking about the intervention of the UN Peacekeeping Force; these people are in another world.

Journalism, by its nature, must be on the side of peace. However, these writers who scream for war against Israel are not acting like journalists; they are defending these theses with a conquest-oriented mentality and an ideological perspective. If they had the slightest interest in journalistic standards, they would not be making calls for war.

While opposing Israel's thuggery in Gaza, we must still remain within the boundaries of journalism. We must struggle by writing, explaining, and producing programs. If protest actions are spreading all over the world today and public opinion is turning against Israel, it is partly thanks to journalism.

This is also the reason why Israel, which has killed more than 200 journalists in Gaza to date, recently targeted Al Jazeera reporter Anas Al-Sharif. They are trying to silence journalists because journalism shows their true face to the world.

We, on one hand, must use the power of our profession, and the press conferences and joint actions of our professional organizations such as TGC, TGS, DİSK Basın İş, Pen Turkey, TürkyayBir, and TYS must continue. On the other hand, we must protect our Palestinian colleagues by supporting campaigns prepared by the Association of European Journalists (AEJ), which have also been signed by famous journalists such as Christiane Amanpour and Alex Crawford, to open Gaza to the world media.

THAT VIDEO LIED!

With the announcement that Özlem Çerçioğlu would switch to the AKP, dozens of outlets, including Aydınlık, Halk TV, Hürriyet, Sabah, Sözcü, 12Punto, and Süper Haber, published news stating, "A video has emerged showing Özgür Özel did not shake Özlem Çerçioğlu's hand 35 days ago."

In fact, this footage, taken at the mayors' meeting held at the CHP Headquarters on July 10, had been published the next day in the local media in Aydın with the headline, "Özgür Özel did not even look at Çerçioğlu's face." Somehow, the mainstream media just noticed this video.

Furthermore, it is not true that Özel did not shake hands with Çerçioğlu that day or left her hand hanging in the air. Since the footage was shot from behind, the moment of the handshake is not visible in the video. However, a photograph taken from directly in front proves that Özel quickly shook Çerçioğlu's hand and walked on.

Indeed, Hadi Özışık showed this photograph on Flash Haber and corrected his remarks from the previous day on TV100. Subsequently, Özgür Özel also sent the photograph to Ahmet Hakan and said that he did not leave Çerçioğlu's hand hanging in the air that day. Ahmet Hakan also corrected his article, but the false news still remains on most sites; some writers are still making comments based on that video.

It is a problematic situation in terms of journalism. CHP reporters could not be immediately aware of the footage published in the local media on July 11; the mainstream media reported the news without checking or researching the footage even after Çerçioğlu's departure. Then the photograph showing them shaking hands comes to light, but no one corrects their news. Error upon error...

Çerçioğlu's transfer also served as a "litmus test for consistency" for the media. When Çerçioğlu was in the CHP, she was the "Heeled Efe" (High-Heeled Efe) of the opposition media; now that she has switched to the AKP, she has become the "Heel-Turning Efe" of the opposition media and the "Heeled Efe" of the pro-government media.

In past years, Sabah was full of news like "CHP's Çerçioğlu has signed off on a new scandal!" and "Investigation permit for Çerçioğlu regarding address-delivery tenders." The Yeni Şafak archive is full of news about Çerçioğlu such as "Çerçioğlu gave 2.8 million in work without a tender, another scandal from Çerçioğlu: It turns out she gave four tenders to the company of a suspect in the Hablemitoğlu assassination."

The pro-government media suddenly erased the "scandal" and "corruption" news they had been publishing about Çerçioğlu for years. The one that made the fastest turn was Yeni Şafak. On the day it was announced that Çerçioğlu would switch to the AKP, it published a puff piece with the headline, "Here is Çerçioğlu's national stance history and participation process."

Yeni Akit's U-turn was also worth seeing. Yeni Akit, which had published the news "Aydın's siphon is flowing to the CHP" just on August 11 and wrote, "Çerçioğlu, whose name comes to the agenda with corruption and against whom 14 investigations are being conducted," immediately turned to the "Heeled Efe."

News Manager Zekeriya Say also penned an article on March 28, based on a post by Akşam writer Emin Pazarcı, in which he explained that "the claim that Çerçioğlu sold a mother to a nightclub in the video they published was a slander" and that Çerçioğlu acted bravely by switching to the AKP.

When independent journalism is not practiced, facts cease to be a compass; consistency also disappears.

LUXURY LIFESTYLE CONSULTANT AND JOURNALIST!

I had noticed that Arda Sayıner was writing in Hürriyet's Kelebek supplement after the news about the bribery case against New York Mayor Eric Adams in the US. The indictment for that case stated that Arda Sayıner introduced Adams, who came to Istanbul in January 2019, to businessman Sezgin Baran Korkmaz.

After the news about the indictment, neither Sayıner made a statement about introducing Sezgin Baran Korkmaz, who is being tried for money laundering in the US, to Eric Adams, nor did Hürriyet provide information to its readers. Sayıner continued his "luxury lifestyle" articles exactly as before.

Hürriyet, having become convinced that the case in the US had been forgotten, put Sayıner back in the spotlight last week after a long break. The announcement at the top of Hürriyet's front page read, "Warm chat in JLO's dressing room." However, what Sayıner conveyed from Lopez in the name of a chat was only that "Istanbul concert audiences were exciting" and that "she was impressed by the food and the Bosphorus tour."

A journalist is going to interview Jennifer Lopez, and then only two lines of the "Raki and kebab are very nice" variety come out! It is not a job that should happen, but Hürriyet presented this as good journalism, boasting about it!

Furthermore, Sayıner went there not with a journalist identity, but as a guest. We understand this from his mentioning that the owner of a "famous jewelry and watch brand" was also among the guests.

Anyway, how much of a "journalist" Sayıner is is debatable. Although Sayıner considers himself a "journalist," he is also the owner of a consulting/communication/public relations/advertising company with offices in Istanbul and London. Sayıner is also introduced as a "leading name in the fields of public relations, luxury lifestyle consulting, and tourism" on the page of the "Global Tourism Forum," which he calls the "Davos of tourism events."

His connection to journalism began with conducting interviews with celebrities and then writing "lifestyle" articles for Daily Sabah in 2010. From there, he moved to CNN Türk and then to Hürriyet, and these days he is "Hürriyet's London Representative."

Clearly, Arda Sayıner's main source of income is not journalism, but advertising, public relations, consulting, etc. He does representation, promotion, and marketing for companies and individuals; in the meantime, by writing for Hürriyet, he gains the opportunity to add "journalist" to his profile. He doesn't hide this either...

The real ethical problem is Hürriyet accepting such a person as a "journalist" and, moreover, not even making it a problem that his name is mentioned in negative matters in an indictment in the US; and also handing over the London Representative office, which was run for many years by a master journalist like Faruk Zabcı, to such a person...

PROFANITIES UNBECOMING OF JOURNALISM

The reason for Hürriyet writer Nedim Şener's profane posts was that his name was mentioned in the criminal complaint of the imprisoned businessman Murat Kapki, which was announced by CHP Chairman Özgür Özel.

Kapki claimed that he told AKP lawyer Mücahit Birinci, whom he alleged "forced him to give false testimony," that "Fuat Uğur, Cem Küçük, and Nedim Şener are constantly writing and talking lies about me," and that Birinci replied, "'They are all with me, don't you worry, I will handle it.'"

Nedim Şener started hurling insults at Mücahit Birinci before Özel's press conference had even finished. When Mücahit Birinci responded with profanities in the same style, things got out of hand.

There must be a decorum for a journalist to respond to an allegation against them. A journalist should not speak with profanities. Indeed, Fuat Uğur and Cem Küçük, whose names were mentioned in the same text, criticized Birinci in harsh language while responding, but they did not resort to insults or profanity.

Şener used a style unbecoming of a journalist by addressing not only Birinci but also Özgür Özel as "Lan" (a derogatory term). This attitude of Şener and his exchange of profanities with Birinci were discussed at length on opposition television channels that evening; it was written about on news sites.

But the pro-government media, led by Nedim Şener's newspaper Hürriyet, ignored this exchange of profanities. Instead of bringing his mistake to light and criticizing it, they preferred to pass over it in silence.

In a single sentence:

Despite warnings that suicide news has a contagious effect, the news titled "Suspicious death of an emergency medicine specialist doctor" by DHA, in which the method of suicide was also described in detail, was used by Akşam, Hürriyet, Posta, Sözcü, and Korkusuz with striking headlines.

The Türkiye newspaper made the signing of contracts for a 10 billion dollar project undertaken by its owner, İhlas Holding, in Kyrgyzstan its top headline.

While Akşam, BirGün, Dünya, Hürriyet, Nefes, Diken, and Posta published the promotional page of a Trendyol project with an advertisement/promotion warning, Aydınlık and Türkiye used it without a warning as if it were news.

The Yeni Şafak newspaper gave extensive coverage to the signing of an agreement regarding the establishment of a tractor assembly plant in Senegal by the Albayrak Group, which owns it.

ANKA, Cumhuriyet, and Halk TV published the criminal complaint documents distributed by CHP Chairman Özgür Özel at his press conference by placing their logos on them as if they were exclusive news.

NTV and Karar hid the name of the private school that sold a math book for 43 thousand liras in their news about "exorbitant prices in private schools."

Reports regarding the death of two soldiers from dehydration in İskenderun on July 25 were not disclosed at the MSB's press briefing this week either.

While Dr. Şener Üşümezsoy was saying on the "Akıl Çemberi" program on CNNTürk, "I am not a soothsayer, I state the facts," the text "Earthquake soothsayer on CNN Türk" was written at the bottom of the screen!

Sözcü made the visit of TV100 owner Necat Gülseven to MHP Chairman Devlet Bahçeli a front-page news story with a photo.

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