Striking comment from Terkoğlu on the controversy over journalists going to Rome: Whoever spends public money must be held accountable

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and a total of 73 people, including 45 members of the press, traveled to Rome, the capital of Italy, for the signing ceremony of the 2027 European Games to be held in Istanbul.

Among the journalists who shared photos from the Rome trip on their social media accounts were names such as İsmail Saymaz, Nevşin Mengü, Ruşen Çakır, Ertuğrul Özkök, and Barış Pehlivan.

The claim that an average of 10 to 15 million TL was spent for the Italy trip organized by the IMM was accompanied by information that a BOEING 737 aircraft was chartered from Turkish Airlines (THY).

It was learned that the cost of a one-night stay at the Parco Dei Principi Grande Hotel ranged between 80 thousand TL and 110 thousand TL.

While AKP deputies and ministers frequently make headlines with their luxurious lifestyles, this time the spotlight has turned to the delegation accompanying Ekrem İmamoğlu.

Giving an exclusive interview to Mynet on the subject, journalist Barış Terkoğlu said, "Whoever spends public money must be held accountable."

When asked by the journalist, 'Did you receive an invitation regarding the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality's Rome trip?', Terkoğlu replied, 'No, I was not invited.'

HOW HE INTERPRETED IT

To the question, "Barış, how do you interpret the controversies surrounding this trip?", Terkoğlu responded as follows:

"First, let me say this. In Turkey, the people most easily beaten are journalists. There is an operation at the Ankara Police Department, the mafia or the police are forgotten, and journalists are interrogated. There is a bribery scandal in the judiciary, judges and prosecutors are overlooked, and the journalists who write about it are pursued. In this controversy as well, while the journalists in the photo are being practically beaten up, I think we are missing the real issue.

One, journalism is a profession practiced for the public interest. On the other hand, I also have a pro-public worldview. I find this debate useful from both perspectives. Because whether the government or the municipality is spending public money, it is a good thing for it to be accounted for. A party or a politician cannot be the guarantee that those currently in opposition will not repeat Erdoğan's creation of a wealthy class with public resources, his establishment of his own media, and his creation of his own high society in the future. Who will be?

It will be the public who can ask the question, 'How are you using my money?' and who can follow up on it. If we are to move this issue beyond 'who went, who was invited,' and if we are to extract good from evil, we must be able to both deepen the questioning and turn it into a story of the people. Two, journalism is a job that should not be done under the shadow of the government or the shadow of the municipality. I have recounted the government operations that get journalists fired, censored, and arrested many times. But recently, in addition to this, a municipal guardianship is also forming in the critical media. Those who own the space that some define as 'opposition media' unfortunately cannot establish the right distance in their relationships with municipalities.

There is a very simple answer to the question of why newspaper-TV bosses did not pay for the journalists' travel tickets: 'Because there are no such bosses!'. We all see that the holdings that own the pro-government media have become rich through tenders thanks to their media outlets."

Terkoğlu concluded his remarks as follows:

"But the owners of the critical media have also failed to establish a principled, distant relationship that prioritizes public interest with those who distribute resources locally. They could not maintain a line independent of municipal guardianship and mayors who use public resources for their own political careers. Let's talk about the rentier order in both the general and local spheres, not just a photo. Let's talk about how we can save the media order from that rent. Otherwise, we will discuss more photos and watch more journalists being beaten."

WHAT HAPPENED?

President and AKP Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in his press statement at the Cabinet Meeting held yesterday, said regarding İmamoğlu's trip, "We see that one of the first actions of some municipalities that changed hands in the March 31 elections is the promotion of alcohol consumption. No one should take offense, but the duty of municipalities is not to do things that encourage alcohol in public spaces or to rent private jets to take journalists to wine festivals, but to try to keep people away from the scourge of alcohol."

İmamoğlu, regarding this response from Erdoğan, said, "I did not understand how the President linked the 2027 European Games, Italy, and Rome to wine. But I guess whoever gave him the information thinks of wine when they hear Italy and Rome. Or we could say he had a hangover. Anyway. At the end of the day, we were there for the 2027 European Games. Let me invite the President to the 2027 European Games in advance."

FARUK BİLDİRİCİ CALLED MURAT ONGUN AND ASKED ABOUT THE TRIP

Media ombudsman Faruk Bildirici evaluated İmamoğlu taking a large group of journalists to Rome and stated that this situation contradicts journalistic principles. In his article titled 'Rome trip, invited journalism and Murat Ongun's response', Bildirici used the following expressions:

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu's Rome trip, which he took with a 69-person delegation for the signing ceremony of the "2027 European Games" in Istanbul, was widely discussed and criticized for its wastefulness. I also evaluated it from a journalistic perspective.

The person who wrote about the trip in the most detail was Ertuğrul Özkök. He also published the list of names of the 37 journalists who participated in the trip, but he did not provide information on who paid for the travel expenses. I asked İmamoğlu's advisor Murat Ongun, "Did the IMM cover the expenses of the journalists you invited to the Rome trip?" Ongun gave exactly this response:

"This question is unfortunately a perspective that belittles journalists; that is, will journalists who observe and write about Turkey's success not write the truth because they are thinking about event expenses? The ECHR gives travel, food, and accommodation expenses to everyone, including journalists testifying in hearings; can we say that a journalist who receives this will not tell the truth in the hearing?

We did not invite journalists for our own or our party's propaganda. We invited them to share in the success of Turkey and Istanbul. Should journalists who snack and drink alcohol at embassy invitations not do these things? This is a wrong debate; the debate should be conducted over the journalist's question and news. The truth is what is important."

I cannot agree with Ongun's comparisons and views. Because the Rome trip is as much a public relations activity for İmamoğlu as it is about Istanbul. Otherwise, political writers, as well as sports writers, would not have been invited for a sporting event.

Of course, I cannot say that our journalist friends will stop writing the truth because the IMM covered their travel expenses. But what is important is the emergence of the suspicion of a conflict of interest. It should not have been allowed for even a "suspicion to arise" in the eyes of readers and viewers.

Moreover, establishing an invitation relationship can affect a journalist's criticality. Indeed, can it be said that a critical approach is dominant in the articles of the journalists who participated in the Rome trip?

ANOTHER REACTION FROM PRESS COUNCIL HIGH BOARD MEMBER DOĞAN SATMIŞ

Another 12punto writer, Doğan Satmış, also stated in his article titled 'The issue of journalists going to Italy with İmamoğlu' that it is not right for journalists to be taken somewhere by invitation and write news, saying, "As someone who has thought about this issue before, let's write the clear rule of this matter: A journalist does not participate in a trip with someone else's money because if they do, they lose their objectivity and write with bias. Let alone participating in a trip, if a journalist is going to write a theater review, they do not even accept an invitation for the play. Indeed, the London Times newspaper, published in England, made it a rule for the reporter who would write the theater review to have their ticket purchased by the newspaper, I think in the 1840s, that is, two centuries ago, and in those years, even a newspaper had not yet been published in Turkey."

News Source: 12punto

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