Media Killed Slain Woman a Second Time

A wave of criticism was caused by an article entitled "Brutal murder captured by camera" published in the nation-wide Milliyet daily on 11 September 2011. The article about the murder of a woman mentioned the victim's "criminal record" and reiterated three times that the woman was a sex worker.

Hülya Gülbahar, former head of the Association for Support and Education for Women Candidates (KA.DER), emphasized that the general attitude towards that sort of murder and the related discourse could only be changed by education on social gender.

"Lack of investigation equals legitimization"

"The readers representative of Milliyet, Derya Sazak, is an ambitious name in terms of correct discourse. Milliyet is an influential paper with a huge number of readers. Publishing a news item using that kind of language without proofreading in such a newspaper is dramatic. The news on the murder was given by almost describing the woman as having deserved to be killed amidst a quagmire of crime", Gülbahar said.

She indicated that violence was legitimized by non-investigative journalism that lacked an objective distance to the situation. She drew attention to the fact that the full name of the 22-year-old victim was disclosed in the article too. "You have to pause and think before you attribute offences like prostitution, the use of drugs and weapons and establishing an illegal organization to a 22-year-old woman. This is a woman dragged into crime and made a scapegoat by the gangs. The result is grave if you make the news without having investigated this" she criticized.

Gülbahar referred to the "Circular of Measures for the Prevention of Honour Killings and Violence against Children and Women"* signed in 2006 and stated that this kind of problems could be solved by means of the quarterly reports on corresponding training as anticipated by the circular.

"A reporter who was trained accordingly would not write news in this way and neither would the editor publish news like that. It is a must for everybody from the general publications manager to the reporter to know the correct language of the media".

"Reasoning murders is wrong"

Sema Sancak, Chairwoman of the Van Yüzüncü Yıl University (YYÜ) Women's Problems Research and Application Centre, said that the general axis of the society's view on women murders was significantly depicted by the media's listing the "reasons" of the culprits of women murders.

"Every time, 'reasons' are being stated for women murders. The motives of the murderer to kill a woman are being emphasized by referring to factors like honour, provocation or deception. However, there is no reason to seize anybody's right to life" Sancak explained to bianet.

"Describing a woman as a prostitute in a news article on the death of a woman, especially emphasizing it in the headlines and giving details about the murder boil down to two aspects: first of all the ignorance of the reporter and second the expected rating".

"Giving details in the news means to make the slain woman a victim once more. (...) Giving details on the murder and describing how the murderer committed the crime serves the purpose of making the culprit an antihero because a bad example is being emulated. Incidents like that should be reported without going into too much detail, without victimizing the victim any further, without making the murderer a hero and by giving the victims initials at most and not giving any reasons for the murder". (IC/VK)

* The "Circular of Measures for the Prevention of Honour Killings and Violence against Children and Women" was signed by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and published in the Official Gazette on 4 July 2006. According to the circular, media institutions should train their employees on how to report about topics related to violence against women and honour killings. Detailed quarterly reports on these trainings are to be sent to the General Directorate of the Status of Women (KSGM).