Some 20 mainstream daily newspapers yesterday issued a public declaration against the publication or airing of their news reports by internet sites, news portals and broadcasting stations even when they cite their sources.
The Federation of Internet Media and Informatics (İMEF,) however, called on these papers to revise their decision and warned that such a move would push internet publications back into the underground.
"The direct duplication of a news report, writing or photograph whose production requires a certain effort first and foremost represents a lack of respect for professional ethics," İMEF said in a statement.
The newspapers who issued the declaration also make use of news reports published by other media sources as well, İMEF further noted.
İMEF also highlighted the long time struggle to render internet media an open and accessible source that complies with certain norms rather than operating underground, adding that it would not help with anything to declare war against it through stern rhetoric and accusing such websites of "theft and recklessness."
"We believe that it is proper and imperative for [such websites] to paraphrase other news reports, writings and photographs in summary form by citing their sources, as [these reports and photographs] turn into a public good once they have been published," İMEF said.
The offensive mounted by these newspapers will drive many representatives of this media underground, just as they had begun to pull their socks up and start coming into the clear, according to İMEF.
"[No one] will be able to supervise the publications of an internet media that has gone underground, no correspondents will be found with respect to published news stories and the practice of 'dirty publishing' will resurface," İMEF said.
İMEF also claimed that citing a news report from another source in limited form and providing an active link to the original source for the rest of the news story would also help boost the number of clicks received by the websites of these dailies, driving their advertisement revenues upward.
"Intellectual and labor theft"
Entitled "Newspapers alone own newspaper content," the declaration was signed by the dailies Akşam, Bugün, Cumhuriyet, Fanatik, Fotomaç, Güneş, Habertürk, Hürriyet, Hürriyet Daily News, Milliyet, Posta, Radikal, Sabah, Star, Takvim, Today's Zaman, Türkiye, Vatan, Yeni Şafak and Zaman.
"The public is also aware of the fact that certain websites have been recklessly using our newspaper content through intellectual and labor theft. This situation leads to a blatanly unfair competition against newspapers and their websites which require significant effort and financing to publish. This also leads to a state of affairs that contradicts the law," the declaration said.
"To this end, we are not going to permit in any shape or form the use of any materials including news reports, commentaries, columns, photographs, cartoons, graphics and page designs which we produce and all of whose rights we reserve. No broadcasting stations, internet websites or news portals will be able to use the signatory newspapers' contents starting from Oct. 1, 2012, even if they cite their source," the declaration added. (NV)
