Vira Bismillah!

In democracies, journalists are told, “Write, my friend”; “As long as you write the truth. Write not by anyone’s direction or pressure, but by sticking to your own truths. Write without fear. Nothing will happen to you. All the institutions and laws of this country are behind you. Don’t be afraid, write!”

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In semi-democracies, however, the journalist is told, “Turn back, my friend”… “Must you only write about negative examples? Write about the positive ones too. Do not oppose, do not object; appreciate. Applaud… Look, everyone has started doing this, you do it too! In other words; turn back, my friend, you turn back too…”

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As for dictatorships… In these systems, the journalist is merely a servant of orders. They ask the questions handed to them. They write what is requested of them. To those who do not ask, who do not write what is requested, and who resist even a little, the words spoken are clear:

“Die, my friend.”

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First, they file dozens, hundreds of lawsuits… They try to wear you down with “judicial harassment.” Armies of lawyers scrutinize your articles and news reports every day… And instead of going to your newspaper or television station, you start being dragged to the courthouse. Then you start receiving serial convictions!

They hand out these sentences in such a way that their goal is to tie your pen!

They don’t sentence you to a few years and throw you inside at the beginning… They defer the “announcement of the verdict”!

They have only one condition:

“Do not write similar articles again, do not commit similar crimes (!) again…”

Then they get you fired; they condemn you and your children to hunger.

Since you don’t know how to do any other job, you cannot hold on. Fights in your private life grow, and unrest begins.

The “Turn Back, My Friend” phrase they made your boss say years ago is now said by your closest ones:

“Turn back, instead of dying of hunger, turn back just like everyone else is doing…”

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Even if you try to turn back, you can’t manage it…

Because of the education you received from scientists at university and masters at newspapers, your “turning organ” has broken down.

You cannot manage sycophancy!

You see this as a betrayal of yourself, your loved ones, your people, your country, and humanity…

You even think about dying, but you cannot bring yourself to do it!

In the end, they say that too:

“Die, my friend… Since you didn’t become the kind of journalist we wanted, and you are still chasing principles and truths, then die in dungeons, die of hunger!”

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I am Mustafa Mutlu. I have been a journalist for exactly 43 years. Those who know, know; I have worked at every stage of this profession. I received awards, I did not shy away from the tasks given in professional organizations.

You know what I described above… I lived through all of it.

Especially for the last 23 years, they have always tried to silence me, to keep me from speaking, to keep me from writing.

They had their cronies buy the opposition newspapers I worked for and had me fired.

They filed nearly two hundred lawsuits.

While I was making do with a salary of a few thousand liras, they demanded hundreds of thousands of liras in compensation!

They shut down the television channels that insisted on working with me through their Telekoms and RTÜKs, and blocked their broadcasts!

Because of me and journalists like me who only try to do their jobs, they played with the bread of hundreds, thousands of media workers.

When I saw that there was no newspaper left to write for, no screen left to speak on; I tried social media.

The rain of lawsuits continued there too.

You have to pay at least 50 thousand liras to a lawyer for one lawsuit!

Where would we find that money?

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That is when I did what the doyen of our profession, Sedat Simavi, said:

I broke the pen I did not sell.

I continued my fight by doing this!

Sometimes silence is also resistance; I learned this.

Instead of surrendering, instead of betraying my principles, I chose to shrink.

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I was not alone; I knew… It was such a great “journalist massacre” that they committed, there were nearly ten thousand victims out there…

Some were editors-in-chief, some were managing editors or news directors… Intelligence chiefs, editors, reporters, photojournalists, translators, cameramen, anchors…

There was only one thing they couldn’t calculate:

What if these people unite one day and appear before them as a single body…

That is it; they couldn’t foresee this!

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I am Mustafa Mutlu. I have been a journalist for exactly 43 years. Those who know, know; I did not sell my pen… I stood tall. I shrank. I shrank so much that they even forgot my existence.

They haven’t let me write or speak for seven years.

I am on the blacklist even in so-called “opposition channels”; and at the very top of it!

Well; why are they running away from me, from people like me?

Let me tell you; because we are in love with independence. We don’t have a cocking lever.

In other words, our strings are not in the hands of others.

Just as we criticize the AKP, we also point out the mistakes of the CHP. Yet they, that is, the so-called opposition media, are caught in the mistake of trying to live on CHP money…

Didn’t it come out recently; that a famous television station received money to broadcast this party’s group meetings, press releases, and rallies…

That is why we are on those lists!

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I am Mustafa Mutlu. I have been a journalist for exactly 43 years. Those who know, know; I am the type they call “wouldn’t hurt a fly.” You know; the kind they say, “Hit him on the back of the neck and take his food”…

Only one thing…

When my profession is concerned, I become a hawk.

And my slap is heavy for those who speak against the founder of this country and his principles!

I am not alone… We are tens of thousands of real journalists.

We are reporters, cameramen, editors, writers!

We have a common point:

We are headstrong! We do not give up, we do not turn back… We might die, but our sprouts will still burst forth from somewhere…

Just like how we are bursting forth from 12punto.com.tr, which you are reading right now…

A group of journalists with integrity, honor, and a firm stance, who have something to write and something to say, we have gathered to be before you by listening only to the voice of our own hearts.

You will read news that you cannot read anywhere else on 12punto.com.tr, and you will put us in a separate place!

I don’t need to list the names one by one; you know all of us by the journalism fight we have been giving for years and by our stance…

We have all come out of such battles, separately or together; we have seen such prisons, such exiles. We have experienced such hunger… We lived through it, yet we still didn’t die!

We had only one dream; to write again one day, to speak again…

12punto.com.tr was founded for this.

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I am here too…

Let it be known to the friends who have been asking “Where have you been” tirelessly for years…

Vira bismillah!