Crises Taking a Toll on Turkeys Media

The usually lively Turkish media is surprisingly quiet and circumspect about an offshoot of the country's economic crisis. One-quarter of the country's journalists have been laid off in the past month.

Turkish journalists, those unemployed and those worried about the tenuous nature of their business, have had to rely on word of mouth to get news of their colleagues.

The Turkish Journalists' Association said 3,000 of Turkey's 12,000 journalists have been laid off since mid-February, when the country was plunged into an economic crisis.

The layoffs have involved workers in print and television media and include journalists from all areas of the business, from reporters to columnists and photographers to cartoonists.

Some say these people are the latest victims of Turkey's recent economic crisis, which seems to have hit the media sector harder than any other.

"Since the 1990s there was an artificial enlargement in the Turkish media. Television stations, dailies, radio stations that mushroomed. Frequent promotions packages increased their circulation and ratings but soon exceeded their capacities," said Ahmet Sahinkaya, director of the Television and Radio Department at Marmara University.

But others say the situation is more complicated and that the Turkish media crisis is more a result of a business awash in problems unrelated to the country's economic difficulties.

"The layoffs are not economic but political," said Ceylan Ozerengin, spokeswoman for a new organization, the Journalists Assembly Initiative.

Monopolistic practices

She placed most of the blame on the monopolization of the industry.

"Today 70 percent of Turkish media is in the hands of just two people," she said. She and other members of the organization said many of the layoffs have been directed toward the most outspoken among their colleagues.

The bulk of Turkey's mainstream media, including 10 national dailies and 17 television channels, radio programs and a number of weekly publications, is controlled by two holding companies, which also have financial interests in unrelated industries.

One of those companies, Dogan Holding, owns Turkey's two biggest Daily newspapers, Hurriyet and Milliyet, as well as the respected Radikal newspaper, and two national television stations, CNN Turk and Kanal D.

It also has investments in banking, finance, insurance and health, communications and the oil industries as well as a share of the electric distribution system for Istanbul.

The other company, the Bilgin Group, owns Sabah newspaper, ATV television station and dozens of periodicals. It also has investments outside the media business, including ownership of a failed bank that embroiled the company in financial and legal difficulties even before the latest economic crisis broke in mid-February.

Companies seized

The group owned Etibank, which was taken over by government Regulators in late October.

It was one of several insolvent institutions seized in recent months after unproven accusations of mismanagement and diversion of funds to other businesses.

"The reason for the existence [of these Turkish media companies] has had no resemblance to the traditional profit-based structuring of other capitalistic media organizations elsewhere, as in the United States," said Haluk Sahin, a columnist at Radikal.

However, Sahin said, the situation has changed and recent corruption scandals and a growing awareness of the conflicts of interest meant that the owners no longer could be shielded by their media holdings.

"Television stations and papers no longer provide owners with the political clout, social immunity or financial benefit they once did," he said.

Just as the problems are more endemic than simply economic, the solutions may involve a restructuring of the entire business.

The Journalists Assembly Initiative is calling for an end to the monopolies and for clear-cut journalistic standards to be applied throughout the industry.

"We are trying to awaken the consciousness among our fellow journalists," Ozerengin said.

"But people are scared. Some people have agreed to work for half their salaries, just to remain employed."

Although this is a time when public trust in the media is at an all-time low, it is also a time when the public needs an independent and strong media the most, said the journalists from the newly formed organization.

According to media critic Sahin, the test will be to turn "this Crisis into an opportunity."

*The article was selected from the Internet Edition of the Chicago Tribune. To visit the site, point your browser to http://chicagotribune.com/.