Martial law, but missing the 'like'

One of the media outlets that described the measures, access restrictions, bans, and detentions taken in Ankara ahead of the NATO Summit as "martial law" and a "state of emergency" was Aydınlık. Under the headline, they wrote, "Martial law declared in Ankara for NATO" and "Like state of emergency measures."

However, the next day, Aydınlık published a "Correction and Apology" on its front page due to these definitions: "Martial law is a legal regulation and does not reflect the current situation."

Of course, there is no officially declared martial law in Ankara. Furthermore, martial law was removed from the laws in 2018, and a "state of emergency" practice was introduced. However, it is clear that the practices in Ankara deserved the comparisons of "martial law" and "state of emergency." Therefore, if Aydınlık had used the word "like" in that headline, it would have been easier to understand that it was a comparison, and there would have been no need for a correction. Indeed, Cumhuriyet used the headline "like martial law."

In fact, what is being done resembles the martial law practices of the single-party era. In those years, too, people were rounded up from their homes in night raids before May 1st, with fabricated crimes. It was the same before the NATO Summit; doors were broken down, homes were raided; 209 people were detained. 178 people, including KAOS GL General Coordinator Yıldız Tar, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Emel Memiş, lawyers who are members of the Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD), and volunteers participating in a TEMA trip, were arrested based on the assumption that they "could carry out terrorist acts" and with baseless labeling.

In addition, access to dozens of X accounts, including those of the Human Rights Association, the Federation of Idea Clubs, and Muzır.org, as well as the "NATO Defol Platformu" (NATO Get Out Platform) website, was blocked.

Naturally, the pro-government media ignored these blocks, detentions, and raids. Newspapers like Hürriyet and Sabah did not mention the accreditation bans in their reports that "nearly 3 thousand journalists will cover the summit." Among those whose accreditation applications were rejected were Aydınlık, Ulusal Medya, TV NET from the pro-government media, Ersin Çelik from Yeni Şafak, and İsmail Halis from Mücerret.com. However, most of those who were not accredited were from the opposition media.

Moreover, NATO officials did not even inform the ANKA News Agency, BirGün, Cumhuriyet, Evrensel, Halk TV, Nefes, NOW TV, İlke TV, Medyascope, Sözcü, T24, and YetkinReport, whose accreditation applications they rejected, of the reason for the ban; following the reactions, they were forced to announce that they relied on the "assessments of the host country."

Following the reactions of journalistic professional organizations, NATO took a small step back and lifted the accreditation ban on Murat Yetkin and a few other journalists.

Meanwhile, the stance of Cumhuriyet, one of the banned media outlets, was also noteworthy. The news titled "Rejection of the accreditation request of Turkey's most established newspaper by NATO: Embargo on Cumhuriyet" seemed as if the ban was applied only to Cumhuriyet. In the news, which was content with saying "The majority of those whose accreditation requests were rejected consisted of opposition media outlets," the names of the banned media outlets were not mentioned. The news was incomplete; it did not provide sufficient information to the reader…

We will now learn what happened at the summit from journalists coming from various countries. The political power gave those journalists enough ideas about the regime in Turkey with its bans, arrests, and obstructions. I hope they also ask their interlocutors about these practices…

Journalists who lost 500 kilos of gold

Sabah's headline "500 kilos of gold lost from 36-hour torture" and Show TV's subtitle "The reason for the kidnapping turned out to be 500 kilos of gold" created a perception of the "existence of 500 kilos of lost gold." However, there was no concrete evidence for the existence of this amount of gold, let alone its loss.

The statement given to the police by Erhan Karaal, Deputy General Manager of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Kültür A.Ş., after he was rescued, did not confirm the existence of 500 kilos of gold either. Those who kidnapped him told Erhan Karaal that he was "the secret safe of Ekrem İmamoğlu and the former general manager of Kültür A.Ş., Serdal Taşkın, who is still in prison," and first demanded 300 and then 500 kilos of gold. When Erhan Karaal said he had no information about the gold, they continued to beat him, saying, "You will give the 500 kilos of gold that Serdal Taşkın hid in Erzincan."

How did the kidnapping gang come to the conclusion that Erhan Karaal had this amount of gold and that he hid it in Erzincan? According to journalist Bahadır Özgür's article on halktv.com.tr titled "He was about to lose his life because of the IMM confessors," the reason why the kidnappers came to this conclusion was "the confessor statements in the IMM case and the 'gold in the safe' stories of the media close to the government"…

Indeed, in the news published last year in outlets such as Anadolu Agency, as well as AHaber, Sabah, Show TV, Yeni Şafak, Yeni Asır, KRT TV, and Süperhaber, based on the statements of driver Orhan Cevahiroğlu, secret witness H.H.Ş., and confessor Servet Yıldırım, it was claimed that Serdal Taşkın "hid it as gold bullion in a safe he rented" at the bank.

However, Serdal Taşkın denied these allegations at the IMM case hearing, saying, "I do not have any account or safe at the VakıfBank Nişantaşı branch. Furthermore, there is no safe service at this branch." No evidence confirming the existence of the gold bullion and the safe could be found either.

As Bahadır Özgür stated, these publications may have motivated those who kidnapped Erhan Karaal. But there was no publication claiming that Erhan Karaal knew the location of the gold worth billions of liras belonging to Serdal Taşkın. There must be another factor, another connection that made them think they could obtain the gold by kidnapping him…

The pro-government media, acting with confirmation bias, always links the veil of mystery surrounding the incident to the IMM case. That is why they can write headlines like "lost 500 billion," "They went after the bribe money," but this attitude makes the incident even more complicated.

True journalism requires chasing the questions left in the dark, researching the clues, and trying to reach new documents and information instead of approaching with a prejudice. This is the only way we can clarify whether those reports in the pro-government media had an effect on the kidnapping.

However, journalist Ali Çağatay, who tried to go after the suspicions at this very point and expressed his doubts in a post, was detained with handcuffs behind his back; and then he was arrested.

This is the obstacle in front of journalism…

Milliyet scooped Gürsel Tekin

Gürsel Tekin announced the first trip of Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu after he was brought to the CHP Chairmanship. He called on party members to welcome Kılıçdaroğlu at the Dudullu Çamlıca toll booths upon his entry to Istanbul.

News sites and television channels made the news that Kılıçdaroğlu would go on an Istanbul trip based on this post made by Tekin at noon on June 24. This news was also included in the printed newspapers on June 25, the next day.

There was only one exception, and that was Milliyet. Under the headline "Istanbul cancelled," it was stated that "the visit was cancelled due to a mandatory change in Kılıçdaroğlu's program." Kılıçdaroğlu had decided at the last minute not to attend the "Month of Muharram and Day of Ashura" event.

Interestingly, at the time Milliyet was printed, there had been no statement from the CHP regarding the cancellation of the trip. In fact, Gürsel Tekin was challenging at 19.25 in the evening, saying, "We will be at the Çamlıca toll booths tomorrow morning. You count how many we are. Come, see the headline on the spot." Gürsel Tekin shared on social media at 05.33 in the morning that the trip was cancelled!

Did Milliyet learn about the cancellation of the trip before Gürsel Tekin; or was Gürsel Tekin late in announcing the cancellation? That is in need of explanation, but it is clear that Milliyet scooped Gürsel Tekin as well as other media organizations….

They asked a terrorism expert about food prices

CNN Türk, which had medical doctor Prof. Dr. Oytun Erbaş interpret the developments in the CHP and the US-Iran war, also talked about the increase in food prices and inflation with a "terrorism and security expert."

In the "Gündem" program presented by Samet Güner on CNN Türk, the question "Why is food inflation so high in Turkey? Are prices being manipulated?" was directed to "terrorism and security expert" Coşkun Başbuğ.

Since they asked this question to a "terrorism and security expert" instead of experts on agriculture and economy, those who brought him to the screen probably did not expect him to explain the increase in food prices with economic conditions and economic management. He also tried to answer the question with "terrorism" and "psychological warfare":

"I am of the opinion that it is an organized job. These are not prices that happen out of nowhere. There is an attack here along with psychological warfare. The things done to manipulate society are also food terrorism."

Of course, Coşkun Başbuğ did not present any data to support the opinion he expressed; they didn't ask for it anyway. By not mentioning the responsibilities of the economic management or the political power's decisions regarding agriculture, they linked the problem entirely to "psychological warfare" and "food terrorism."

This seems to be the logic behind the seizure of poultry companies. The intellectual preparation for trying to suppress prices with police measures is exactly these programs. Let alone journalism, there is no rational side to these comments…

In one sentence:

In addition to ministers Hakan Fidan and Mehmet Şimşek, the President's son Bilal Erdoğan also attended President Erdoğan's meeting with Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong; Anadolu Agency narrowed the frame of the photo in the news and removed Bilal Erdoğan.

Hürriyet wrote "Atatürk Airport in Etimesgut" in its "NATO summit alarm in Ankara" news, but the name of that airport had been announced as "Ankara," not Atatürk.

While Yeni Şafak presented the press conference of MÜSİAD Chairman Burhan Özdemir with the headline "This economic program has expired," Türkiye used the headline "Let's not waste our resources" and ignored Özdemir's criticisms regarding the economic program.

In Tavır's "The most powerful weight loss needle" news, a drug was promoted by giving its brand and name, even though it was "experimental" and "unlicensed."

İnternethaber presented the possibility of an 18 percent increase in retirement pensions as if it were good news with the headline "If inflation comes like this, the retiree is saved."

Yeni Akit, in its headline "This street leads to Silivri," threatened that Özgür Özel could also be arrested like Osman Kavala, Can Atalay, and Selahattin Demirtaş.

On the NTV screen, it was written for MHP Chairman Bahçeli that he "pointed to a show of power"; it should have been "show," not "indicator."

RTÜK fined Halk TV and Koza TV for reporting on the "allegations of torture, abuse, and harassment at a nursing home in Batman."

The advertisement of the AKP-run Konya Metropolitan Municipality was published in six newspapers, and the advertisement of the İzmit Metropolitan Municipality was published in 12 newspapers and 7 sites as if it were news, without an advertisement warning.

Haber7 wrote in the "Survey on Kılıçdaroğlu's desk" news of Türkiye and Odatv that the CHP's vote dropped by 7 percent, but in fact, there was a 7-point drop.

Türkiye evolved into a new dimension of sycophantic journalism by publishing the signing of an agreement for the construction of a hydroelectric power plant in Kyrgyzstan by the newspaper's owner, Mücahit Ören, on two full pages inside, in addition to the front page.

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