Tolga Şardan journalism, persona non grata!

Medicine and journalism are very similar. Just as a physician who takes the Hippocratic Oath and dons a white coat is conscientiously responsible to their patient from the moment they step into the profession, a journalist is conscientiously responsible to the public from the very first day they pick up their pen.

The physician's primary duty is: “First, do no harm.”

The journalist's duty is: “Do not hide the truth from society.”

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We were still at the very beginning of everything. The division in our profession began with numbers. Approximately 10 thousand journalists were laid off. Those who were putting their children through private school, those who had saved a few pennies and taken on installments for a house or a car, those who were in debt could not resist. They continued their duties in the mainstream media. The fear that spread eventually brought about self-censorship.

The spirit of the times passed over journalism like a bulldozer. Even the boss of Hürriyet, the flagship of our media, and the owner of the Doğan Media Group, Aydın Doğan, could not withstand the pressure and left…

The year was 2014. We were just at the beginning of a sharp fracture in journalism. I decided to make that documentary, which explains that we need to protect our profession and each other.

For those who have the power to break pens one by one, would they have the power to destroy conscience-based journalism if hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of pens came together and stood united?

Journalism is based on the 5W1H rule.

What? Why? How? Where? When? Who?

These questions are the fundamental elements of reporting. If one is missing, the news is also incomplete. The most important of these questions is “Why.” It leads us to in-depth information. It is the most fundamental question of investigative journalism: WHY?

However, journalists who dared to ask the question WHY were declared “Persona Non Grata” over time. I filmed *Persona Non Grata* during those very days. We were witnessing every development moment by moment. I had filmed it in the hope of seeing better days, without knowing that we were documenting the most painful days of our press history.

I wanted to force our profession to face itself, in the hope that we might perhaps achieve the solidarity we failed to reach.

Unfortunately, PERSONA NON GRATA could not fulfill its duty.

From the reporter to the editor, from the editorial desk to the boss, we could not protect our profession, which is responsible to the public. We failed to stand together; we were scattered, dispersed, and broken.

There is no emotion as human as fear. But journalism requires standing in front of fear.

Nine years have passed since I filmed *Persona Non Grata* in 2014. Fear has descended upon us like a dark cloud. The Censorship (Disinformation) Law, which came into effect last year (2022), descends like a club not only on journalists but on every citizen who dares to ask the question “Why.” Investigations, detentions, arrests…

Tolga Şardan, a senior journalist who has done nothing in his life but journalism, who holds many professional awards, and who is the pride, honor, and integrity of our profession, was abruptly sent to prison last week.

The tears that welled up in the eyes of an honorable journalist pierced our hearts.

Why couldn't we show solidarity? Why couldn't we stand united? Every journalist who still loves their profession must face this question.

I had asked my journalist friend Çiğdem Toker, from whose courage I have always drawn strength, “Are you afraid?”

“I am not afraid, I feel sorrow,” she had said. “There are few emotions as diverse as sorrow. I feel sorrow for what we are going through, and I do not see the work we do as a job that requires courage. We are neither heroes nor brave. We are journalists!”

As dear Tolga Şardan said while being taken to prison;

We are Journalists!

For journalism

we must stand united!