Major Media Ignores The Obvious Until It Hurts

Michael Hedges June 3, 2013 Follow on Twitter

Where sharp divides on cultural issues exist passions are easily ignited by the smallest acts. Sometimes it's the air of springtime. Sometimes it's the fear of another Spring. Whatever is in the air, people hear about it. It's a fact that can't be controlled.

Rain swept through Istanbul early Sunday, providing an uneasy calm after scenes of burning automobiles, charging police, water cannons and teargas unleashed from helicopters were broadcast worldwide since Friday night. Protests were centered at Istanbul’s Taksim Gezi Park but spread over several nights to the capital Ankara and other cities. Trees in the park popular with families were uprooted last week to prepare for construction of a shopping mall.

Bulldozers tore through a park wall late last Monday night (May 27), taking out several trees. Neighborhood residents moved in and built a small tent city to prevent further destruction. Police moved in the next morning with teargas. Activists were irritated by the authorities heavy-handedness on this and other cultural issues. News traveled fast, as it does, on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. One referred to the protests, perhaps optimistically, as the Tree Revolution.

The week before (May 24) Turkey’s parliament enacted legislation restricting sales of alcoholic beverages and banned completely their advertising and marketing, seen by some as further influence of conservative Islam on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government. In early May national carrier Turkish Airlines banned female flight attendants wearing red lipstick and nail polish as the cosmetics “impairs the visual integrity of the intended look.” The ban was quickly rescinded.

Police arrested Kanal D Ankara bureau chief Erhan Karadag early Sunday morning (June 2) for “supporting the demonstrators,” reported Hurriyet (June 2). He had gone to the Tunali district in Ankara where anti-government protestors had gathered to support the Taksim Gezi Park demonstration with bottled water for “his friends among the demonstrators.” After interrogation by Ankara prosecutor and intervention by the Justice Ministry he was released several hours later.

ATV reporter Mesut Ciftci and cameraman Ismail Velioglu were struck by rubber bullets at Taksim Gezi Park Saturday night. Photos of their injuries circulated on social media. Journalist Ahmit Sik was hit in the head by a teargas canister early Friday (May 31) which onlookers said was deliberate, reported Reporters sans Frontiers (RSF). “The Istanbul police must be called to order because their repeated use of excessive force is unacceptable,” said RSF in a statement. “Thorough and impartial investigations should also be carried out to identify and punish the police officers who deliberately targeted journalists.”

Author of two books on a notorious scandal involving a military officer’s plot to overthrow the elected government, Sik was “detained” for a year. He is currently under indictment for “defaming civil servants.”

“Such attacks are clear indicators of a police state,” said a blunt statement from Progressive Journalist Association (PJA/CDG), quoted by haberbiz.com (June 2). “Media owners and managers should react. Correspondents are working to do their duties as agents for the people’s right to information.”

“Freedom of expression on contemporary issues lags woefully behind progress in other spheres, stymied by a government that regularly seeks to intimidate publishers, editors and reporters, as well as columnists,” wrote McClatchy’s Roy Gutman in a scathing review of Turkey’s media landscape (May 13). Interests of media owners are conflicted and “major events go undiscussed.”

The Erdogan government, now in its eleventh year, faced criticism as the world’s biggest jailer of journalists with a shrug. Owners of media outlets offering criticism have found themselves at odds with tax authorities. More compliant owners, including family members, have seen fortunes swell.

The dimension of protests in Istanbul, Ankara and beyond has been impossible for Turkey’s conflicted media to ignore. Local media watchers complained that the Taksim Park protests drew little or no coverage as the story broke late last week from CNNTurk, NTV, state TV TRT or major newspapers. By Saturday, that had changed.

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