Hammer Müzik – Enis Kızılkaya Röportaj
Media should not be censored because humans should express their feelings and thoughts freely. Most countries don’t have freedom of press. Turkey’s is quetionable.
Recently Turkey banned lots of websites. Also they imprisoned some 37 columnists who expressed their thoughts about the present rule. “The lack of total press freedom in Turkey is one of the main reasons that the general circulation of print publications is a mere 3 million in a country whose population is 75 million. ‘’
However, one has to see also that there is a wide variety of media outlets in the country: some 30 national dailies (nearly 15 mainstream), five national weeklies, 25 local papers in the Turkish language, and two English-language national dailies. There are also about 18 national radio stations, hundreds of local radio stations, nearly 25 national TV channels, and 20 local TV channels.
It’s quite a dilemma. Turkey has a lively press and there is no overt censorship, but it remains a difficult environment for independent journalism. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 14 journalists were imprisoned in Turkey at the end of 2000 and many journalists ended up in court for prosecutions stemming from their work.
Even comics and caricatures were censored. A British caricaturist who drew the Prime Minister of Turkey as a dog was fined. “It’s censorship. It’s a threat. It’s punishing people who are expressing their opinion,” Dickinson told dpa, the day after the verdict was handed down. “There is a lack of freedom in a country where journalists can be arrested or cartoonists fined for expressing their opinion,” said the artist, who has been living in Turkey for the last 23 years. “
The Turkish media is vibrant in proliferation but not in quality. The content is poor, similar in many newspapers, not much attention payed to research or supporting evidence. But the dilemma is in this inherent question: is it the chicken or the egg causing the lack of quality?
