SULTAN YAVUZ- Implemented by the Association of Journalists and financed by the European Union “Media for Democracy/Democracy for Media Project” hosted Haldun Armağan who held a talk on the film “Spotlight” which was later displayed for the audience.

M4D Project Assistant Coordinator Seva Ülman gave brief biographical information about Armağan, who was born in Eskişehir, graduated from Hacettepe University English Language and Literature. Armağan later worked for the Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor and the World Paper magazine.

Mentioning that Armağan has begun working in the foreign news department of the Anka Agency Ülman added that Armağan has acted as a foreign policy and diplomatic correspondent, as well. Armağan who has worked for the Anatolian Agency, Güneş and Milliyet newspapers came first place in the “Abdi İpekçi Film Criticism” competition in 1985; his writing has been published in Radikal, Cumhuriyet, Sabah and Hurriyet Gösteri magazines.
Armağan later worked as a Public Relations Advisor the US Embassy, and continues to write about cinema. Ülman added that Armağan publishes his content on “sanattanyansimalar.com” website.

Armağan “In every society we see belief systems abused by such perversions”
 

Following the film, a member of the audience asked Armağan “Are there similar taboos in the American press? We’ve seen so many similar things happen in Turkey. I can only imagine what would happen if people tried to make such a film in Turkey. What do you think?” Armağan responded:
“In its essence, it depends on whether real journalism can be practised or not. There, news reaches the owner of the newspaper who says ‘publish the piece’; in the US the respectability of a newspaper depends on publishing a news article if its true. The first thing we need to consider here is, for journalism to be free, journalists need to be independent and not required to deal with other things.
There are of course taboos there too, but when journalistic integrity prevails things can change. In the film there is a problem with the legal system, it says ‘wait your turn’. If we were to apply what happens in the film to Turkey, we’d witness a complete cover up; in every society we see belief systems abused by such perversions. The film emphasizes this happens on a global scale”.
Armağan told the audience that the film ‘Spotlight’ had received an Oscar for ‘Best Picture’, and while the plot of the film is a crime thriller, there is no single hero in the film. Haldun Armağan said “the film didn’t play on people’s emotions, other films took a more ‘tabloid paper’ approach in their depictions, the film was more like an informative documentary”.
Spotlight
Directed by Tom McCarthy and written by McCarthy and Josh Singer, the 2015 American production tells the story of a group of journalists working for the Boston Globe. The newspaper depicted in the film had received the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2003.
The award-winning film is set in 2001, a newly employed news editor sees an article about a paedophile priest and archbishop, then the ‘Spotlight’ team sets out to research the topic. The Spotlight Team starts an investigation into widespread and systemic child sex abuse in the Boston area by numerous Roman Catholic priests. The team finds out from a former priest that there are around 90 abusive priests in Boston. The film surrounds the investigations conducted by the journalist team.