NAZ AKMAN / (ANKARA) – Implemented by the Association of Journalists and funded by the European Union, the Media for Democracy/Democracy for Media Project presented its yearly activities and supports it provides. M4D Media Conference was held at Ankara Büyükhanlı Hotel and hosted numerous journalists, diplomats, academicians and union representatives.
Association of Journalists Chairman Nazmi Bilgin and Head of the EU Delegation to Turkey Christian Berger made the opening speeches which was followed by various panels and discussion boards focusing on the current situation of the media in Turkey, public broadcasting and the Press Advertising Authority.
As part of the conference, a book signing was held for the book titled “Şimdi Onlar Manşet” (Now They’re the Headline) compiling interviews with 69 prominent journalists which was prepared by Taner Dedeoğlu for the Association of Journalists.

Bilgin, “I fully believe our supports will continue to increase in the following years”
In his opening speech Association of Journalists Chairman Nazmi Bilgin said: “There is a lot to say at the end of our first year. Christian Berger has supported us by attending our events. I fully believe our supports will continue to increase in the following years. I would like to thank Project Director Yusuf Kanlı and the whole project team for their hard work throughout the year”.
Bilgin discussed the financial problems local media faces, and how the project has been supporting unemployed journalists through its support mechanisms. Emphasizing the importance of the project for journalists to be able to sustain their profession Bilgin said the following about the current situation of the media in Turkey “I will not go into detail about the current situation the media in Turkey, but it gives me a lot of pain. When we look at newspaper sales, we see that money cannot buy everything. Many television stations had to shut down due to low ratings. Just days ago, two newspapers closed their doors due to not being able to find financial resources. These developments do not paint a pretty picture for Turkey. While we should be struggling together, we end up waiting in long queues at the notary. Editors-in-chief, executive producers rather than stand with us strived to leave their unions. This isn’t a professional issue, it’s a moral issue. Despite all of this, I have not lost my hope. Pessimism is something a journalist should not feel. We are trying to provide unemployed journalists with a little hope through the support mechanisms provided by the project. One day, the path with clear up.  Never lose hope in this. Belief in this is believing in patriotism, the republic, democracy and the principles of Atatürk. From time to time we hear comments about how Turkey is not going to be accepted to the EU. To be honest, we’ve been waiting at the door of the EU without earning the right to become a member. We may have our faults, but the EU is overlooking something important. More than 50% of Turkey believe the EU to be a door opening up to civilization. Governments are temporary, but making the people of Turkey wait has broken our hearts. As a people we decided to face west, rather than east.  We wish to overcome certain issues and step by step become a member of the EU and open up to democracy and freedom”.

Berger “The Association of Journalists must be supported”
Head of the EU Delegation to Turkey Christian Berger emphasized that the Association of Journalists must be supported and said “Media for Democracy, Democracy for Media. The project’s name says it all. I would like to thank everyone for coming here today, those who have strived to improve the situation of the journalism in Turkey, for freedom of expression and the press. Freedom of the press and expression are two important issues for EU enlargement and accession processes. Supporting freedom of the press is a basic principle of the EU both within and outside the union. The European Union pays great attention to freedom of the press and journalism indicators. These indicators are: political power and intervention, economic concerns, concentration in the media and monopolization, oppression and violence targeting journalists. It is very important to support qualified investigative journalism. Journalists are being targeted around the world; therefore the European Union strives to protect and support investigative journalism. In addition to supporting different professional organizations in different countries, the Association of Journalists must be supported as well. Through support mechanisms, it is aimed to increase the capacities of these organizations and increase the support they provide for their members. We are trying to increase solidarity with journalists who have been rendered unable to practise their profession”.

“Press Honour Award” given to Öymen
Following the opening speeches, senior journalist and author Altan Öymen was awarded the “Press Honour Award” given by the Association of Journalists. Chairman Bilgin told the audience the meaning behind the symbolism of the award, the bird in the statuette symbolizing peace, while the pen symbolizing journalism breaking free from its chains. Bilgin also thanked the creator of the statuette Şerif Akşit.
Öymen “The press in Turkey will be free once again”
Receiving the award from Bilgin and Berger, Öymen remarked this was his 70th year in the profession and added that developments in the Turkish media is not akin to that of a democratic country. Stating that the press in Turkey will be free once again Öymen said “Metin Toker, a previous chairman of the Association of Journalists, once said ‘Journalism is the greatest profession in the world if it is done properly”. Journalism is a wonderful profession. Press freedom has quite a long history in Turkey, we’ve been through freer times. It is impossible to speak of democracy where there is no freedom of the press. The Turkish public has internalized democracy. Having overcome certain difficulties Turkey was no different than European countries at the beginning of the millennium.  Up until this point, journalists have been murdered. Turkey has strayed away from being a country where there is freedom of the press. It has increasingly become difficult to call Turkey a democratic state. Of course, this will not go on forever. The system that has allowed this to happen with change. The press will be free once again in Turkey. Conferences such as this, will no doubt contribute to this”.

Beşikçioğlu, “You cannot separate art, teaching and journalism”
Following the opening speeches, actress and artist Elvin Beşikçioğlu made a speech titled “Art and Freedom”. Beşikçioğlu underlined the importance of art in developed countries “We cannot separate art from thinking, especially theatre combines many different disciplines. When practising music, or painting you can do them alone but theatre is not like that. You realize theatre by combining different elements. One of these elements is literature, an art form that uses both written and spoken words. The same is true for journalists. It becomes art when you say it in a universal way. Art’s meaning here is very important. By opening up the lives of other cultures, and adding art to it do you get a piece of art. Unfortunately, we do not come across art like this anymore. These things require financing. Institutions may suffer from internal strife; this may require certain measures to be taken but we cannot accept these being done through destructiveness.  We’ve seen the power of art not only in Ankara and Istanbul, but in places like Diyarbakır and Gaziantep. We’ve seen the impact of art on children, some of them have become our colleagues over the years. You cannot separate art, teaching and journalism, or any other profession for that matter.

Media Monitoring Report 2019
After the speeches, M4D Project Director Yusuf Kanlı talked about the 2019 Media Monitoring Report. The report documents developments regarding imprisoned journalists, freedom of expression violations, newspaper sales and media ownership in 2019. Kanlı said “Turkey has painted a picture akin to authoritarian regimes regarding freedom of the press in 2019. The situation of imprisoned journalists has proven to be a chronic issue. Cases of ‘insulting the president’ have reached unprecedented levels, unseen in democratic countries. These trials hang over freedom of the press and expression like the sword of Damocles. The President is also the head of a political party in the new government system. This dual occupation has demonstrated that defamation cases have been mostly interpreted quite liberally at the cost of the defendant. Prolonged prison sentences have become the bleeding wound of freedom of expression and the press. The Legal Reform Package gives us hope in the possibility of reducing these long prison sentences to human levels”.
Referring to the importance of unionization Kanlı said: “We need to ensure unionization in Turkey. As the Association of Journalists we are the second biggest press organization in Turkey. Despite this, our membership is around the 10% mark, it’s fair to say there aren’t any journalists in associations. In addition to imprisoned journalists is the problem of media ownership. We used to know who newspaper owners were, but now this is not the case. Our third problem is censorship, or self-censorship”.

Support mechanisms provided to journalists by M4D
Following Kanlı, M4D Project Officer Igor Chelov talked about various support mechanisms provided by the project: “This project is implemented by the Association of Journalists and financed directly by the European Commission. The project started in January 2019, it will end in April 2022; so it’s a 40 months project. The main goal of the project is to strengthen media pluralism and press freedom in Turkey. While doing so we designated three target groups. The first group are freelance journalists, the second group are civil society organizations working in the media field and the third are media outlets. We consider these groups in a holistic manner, and through the support mechanisms we provide we aim to achieve two goals. The first goal is to establish a foundation where media pluralism and freedom of the press is supported and awareness surrounding these issues increase. The second aim is to establish and a safe-place where journalists can connect and increase solidarity. In addition to the support mechanisms we’ve also established a Press House at the Association of Journalists. The Press House functions both as a bridge between journalists and national/international actors while also providing them with a safe-place”.
M4D Support Programme Expert Merve Kartal shared yearly data regarding support mechanisms provided by the project. Kartal gave information about the four support mechanisms and said:
“As part of the project we provide support to freelance journalists, media organizations and institutions. Our Website Technical Support mechanism is still in effect, we received applications from 62 different cities, and 33 were approved.  Out of the 33 applications many were put into practise. We aim to provide support to 50 applications throughout the project. One of the aims of this project is to help journalists establish digital media channels. Our other support “Facility for Strengthening Freelance Journalists” aims to provide support freelance journalists by publishing 315 news articles, 105 research articles and serials in exchange for royalties. We provide support for an approximate of nine news articles, three research articles or serials per month. These articles are published on “24 Saat Newspaper” in exchange for royalty fees. The support mechanism we opened for application in April received 195 applications, out of these 103 were published in 24 Saat Newspaper. 116 are among approved news articles, applications are still open. Until now, 72 news articles and 24 research articles have been published. The other support mechanism we provide is aimed at young journalists. Again, 31 young journalists from across Turkey applied for this support mechanism. Out of these 31 applications, seven of them were accepted. Again, as part of this support mechanism we provide young journalists with equipment, training and visibility in communication support. Our final support is the “Press House Support” which has the highest amount of funding which means it can reach the highest number of people. In September we received a total of 53 applications which were put into practise. As of February we will be entering our new period. We believe we will receive more applications in comparison to last year”.

Model Applications
Journalists Tülin Daloğlu, Ünsal Ünlü and İrfan Uçar talked about the websites they established through support they received in the “Model Applications” panel, moderated by Kartal.
Tülin Daloğlu of “Halimiz.com” said: “I broadcast a discussion every month on my website; my guests and I talk about the situation of the media. As ‘Halimiz.com’ we discuss with out guests a main theme and how it may affect our lives”. Irfan Uçar talked about a network he has established with unemployed through his website “yeni1mecra”. Uçar said “We established a website and YouTube channel called ‘yeni1mecra’. We were able to establish a network between unemployed journalists and writers. We have three main targets: journalists who want to sustain their jobs, people who are subjects of the news but fall outside the scope of mainstream media, and news itself.  Our main topics of interest are labour, precarity, refugees, unemployment, economic crisis, rights violations. We currently have a three person administrative team, one volunteer and 15 writers. As ‘yeni1mecra’ we publish the content of journalists in exchange for royalties. Those who have benefited from this support have not been limited to Ankara, we’ve had people write from Istanbul, Şanlıurfa, Hatay, Elazığ and many other cities. In 60 days we’ve published 9 pieces of content. 15 minutes of video content is created daily. In the second and third periods of the support mechanisms, I believe that projects which show institutional promise should be focused on.
Ünsal Ünlü from Patronsuz said “I currently broadcast to 100 thousand people each day. My only criteria is objective journalism, so I appeal to a wide array of people. The name of my broadcast is called ‘patronsuz’ (without a boss). We show everyone that journalism can be practised without blaming and judging others. When I was applying to the project, I thought to myself how I could contribute to the Association of Journalists. I attended a digital broadcasting fair in Amsterdam, it really broadened my horizons. I discovered many interfaces used in digital broadcasting; my views increased by 9,5 percent after using what they call ‘multicasting’”.

Public Broadcasting
Following these speeches, Prof. Korkmaz Alemdar moderated the “Public Broadcasting” panel which was attended by Spanish State Television RTVE International Relations Director Asuncion Gomez Bueno, former Anatolian Agency General Manager Ceyhan Baytur and former TRT producer Hadi Şenol. In his speech, Şenol commented that a union of broadcasters must be established to improve public broadcasting. Baytur also mentioned the importance of public broadcasting in terms of informing the public and that the Association of Journalists should act as a pioneer in this regard. In the panel, journalist Bueno shared her experience in channel RTVE and how journalists across the world should strive together to solve the problems of public broadcasting.

Local Media and the Press Advertisement Authority
Another panel titled “Local Media and the Press Advertisement Authority” was held which was moderated by former Press Advertisement Authority General Council member Mustafa Arslan, and attended by Gaziantep Journalists’ Association Chairman Arif Kurt and former Press Advertisement Authority where the structure of the Press Advertisement Authorty, its function and duties were discussed, alongside its current issues. The panellists touched upon the importance of the Press Advertisement Authority’s role for the press sector to sustain itself, while discussing the decline in official announcements/advertisements and how measures must be taken to protect local media.
The conference ended with Chairman of the Association of Journalists Nazmi Bilgin thanking everyone for their attendance and participation.