Journalism Organizations on Opposing Election Coverages

Last evening at 7.15 pm local time, newspapers, TV and social media published incoherent results about the local election results.

There was a discrepancy between Anatolia Agency (AA) and Cihan News Agency (CİHAN) upon the vote counts. They made a statement "We are behind our numbers".

“The reliability of AA news is not a matter of debate. Never. From this time it won’t, either,” AA made a statement to the press.

bianet asked Press Council Chairman Pınar Türenç, Turkish Journalists’ Union Chairman Uğur Güç and Turkish Journalist Association Chairman Turgay Olcayto regarding the discrepancy between two news agency and how this discrepancy affected people’s right to receive information.

Türenç: Media has become a means of manipulation

“I have been following the elections for 35 years. I have witnessed election news without election board’s numbers for the first time in my life. News agencies published news from their own resources. Both AA and CİHAN have become a means of manipulation while they were publishing news from their own resources. People saw different results no matter which media organization they looked until midnight. The loser of this race is the people. I am really worried. There has been always partisans. But this kind of polarization nowadays is startling. We are in a worrisome age in the sense of freedom of press and people’s right to receive information.”

Güç: This election is a sign of irregularities

“Even if they say AA is an objective agency, we already know that AA functions like the government’s media organ with their partisan tweets and news. It seems very strange: the incoherent election results, the discrepancy between agencies and publishing different election results without Supreme Election Committee’s (YSK) statement. This is a sign of irregularities and unfair elections.”

Olcayto: The polarization goes on in the media

“We experienced a new kind of political polarization created by the politicians in the media yesterday.

State-funded AA was expected to publish objectively. But they published the election news by giving examples of places where Justice and Development Party (AKP) had powerful votes. Certainly people reacted this and the newspapers were stuck in a difficult situation. CİHAN was the most trustworthy news agency in the last elections. We could trust it. But people were discomfort due to the discrepancy between agencies. The politicians had to make statements on screen. It is evident that the polarization in the media will go on. I don’t think there will be a huge difference when I consider about PM Erdoğan’s balcony speech tone.

However, the journalists have to mind their own business and arrange their cooperation. Otherwise, the journalism will be wiped out.(EA/BD/BM)

* Click here to read the article in Turkish.