A TV channel was launched to 'bring back impartial reporting'; it survived for only 26 days

Cavit Çağlar

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Olay TV was probably the most renowned local media outlet in Turkey because of being one of the first private channels of the country and of its owner, Cavit Çağlar, a prominent politician and businessperson in the 1990s.

It was founded in the northwestern Bursa province in 1994 as part of a media group consisting of an FM radio station and a daily newspaper with the same name and continued broadcasting until November 2019 when it was closed due to financial difficulties.

Less than 13 months later, on November 30, Çağlar, in partnership with businessperson Hüseyin Köksal, relaunched Olay TV as a national broadcaster based in İstanbul.

The channel's new staff included several renowned journalists, including Süleyman Sarılar as the editor-in-chief and Nevşin Mengü as a news presenter, both of whom previously worked for CNN Türk, which has adopted a pro-government editorial policy since its sale to the Demirören Group in 2018.

In a media environment where all the larger media groups are pro-government with their financial ties to Ankara, the motto of Olay TV was "bringing journalism back to its factory settings."

CLICK - Media Ownership Monitor Turkey 

On December 22, reports emerged that the channel would be closed on the weekend after pressures from Ankara.

OdaTV news site and Ahmet Şık, an independent lawmaker and a former journalist, wrote that the government wanted Çağlar to appoint pro-government journalists to executive positions and fire a number of people, including Sarılar and Mengü.

Çağlar was threatened that his companies and assets would be confiscated by the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) if he failed to meet the requests, according to the reports.

The businessperson has a history of getting his assets confiscated after his Interbank went bankrupt in 1999 during a banking crisis. The Olay Medya group was also confiscated by the TMSF in 2008 when he was still paying the debt from the bankruptcy. Çağlar got his media group back after agreeing with the agency in 2010.

MP Şık wrote that the threats came after Olay TV broadcast the full parliamentary group meeting of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) live last Tuesday.

The HDP has been linked by the government to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and faced judicial crackdowns since the state of emergency period declared after the July 2016 coup attempt. Also, its members haven't appeared on major TV channels since then.

CLICK - HDP not covered at all by eight TV channels in May 

While Çağlar gave way after threats, his partner, Hüseyin Köksal, decided to continue the channel under a new name and the royalty and the frequency of Olay TV is owned by Çağlar, OdaTV and Şık wrote.

On the same night, Nevşin Mengü wrote on Twitter, "The one who doesn't have the courage always has an excuse."

On his part, Çağlar didn't claim to be "courageous" or doing "critical reporting."

Before he relaunched Olay TV, he told Habertürk columnist Fatih Altaylı that they intended to do "reporting without any comments."

"The channel will not have an attitude about any issue. Let alone having an attitude, it won't even have any comments. We will be completely comment-free," Altaylı quoted him as saying.

When he asked whether they would face pressure from the government, Çağlar responded, "It's easy. I shut down [the channel] and walk off."

He also recalled that his TV channels, Olay TV and NTV, which he later sold to another media group, were always impartial and didn't even support his party when he was active in politics.

He served as a lawmaker between 1987 and 1999 from the center-right True Path Party (DYP), which formed a coalition government in 1996 with the Welfare Party (RP), the party that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was a member of before establishing his Justice and Development Party.

The channel's closure was announced during the prime news bulletin on Friday night (December 25) by editor-in-chief Sarılar.

He echoed Çağlar's remarks, saying that their intention was to do impartial reporting in a polarized environment.

"In a country politically polarized to this extent, the media was also polarized. One group was [supporting] the government, another was opposing. The truth was a bit lost," he said.

He added that they managed to bring together politicians from all parties and stood at equal distance to every group.

"Cavit said 'There is great pressure on me from the government. I'm under heavy pressure, I can't continue'," Sarılar said and confirmed the reports that the government requested the businessperson to replace the executives of the channel. The government hasn't confirmed or denied the claims that it interfered with the channel's affairs.

While Olay TV is closed now, Köksal, who invested in the broadcaster, is looking for ways to continue it under a new name, according to Sarılar. (VK)