Military Jargon Must Cease For Peace

Saying that above all the media has to be biased against war, anti-war activists believe the realities of war need to be relayed to the masses without being simplified.

Tarhan: The human dimension of war needs to be remembered

Total objector Mehmet Tarhan, who was recently sentenced to 25 months imprisonment by a military court in Sivas said his expectation from the media was simply to "receive news".

Stressing that the media needed to fulfill its duty of being an instrument of communication, Tarhan argued that at current the media supported war.

"The true human dimension of war cannot be seen", Tarhan told bianet. "People should be able to know that people really die in wars". Saying that the media needed to side with peace and the people, he added that there was a very true censorship imposed on conscientious objection in Turkey.

As one of the leading objectors in the country, Tarhan explained that journalists in Turkey had started to debate "embedded journalism" after the occupation of Iraq.

"Turkey has been passing through a very bad exam over the past 20 years" he said. "There has been a war in this country for 20 years that is being ignored. These have to be recorded without being afraid or concerned. They have to break through being a media that is the voice of its owner".

He suggested that one alternative to what was happening was to develop on magazine and internet journalism.

Magden: Opportunity for peace receiving a blow

Prosecuted for the offence of "discouraging people from military service" in an article she wrote for Yeni Aktuel magazine on "Conscientious Objection", journalist and writer Perihan Magden said she believed there was a militarist and nationalist approach in the media.

Magden said the possibility for peace in the Southeast of Turkey was being threatened by military expressions and that the talk of martyrdom had been turned into a constant. Yet, she said, parents who were not accepting the death of their children who were conscripted for the war was breaking through this constant.

The author argued that existing newspapers in Turkey were "still births" and said "there is a need for stronger news reports that uncover realities as they are". She said the people wanted this. "Why does the media want to ignore this?" she asked.

Altinay: The media is normalizing militarism

Dr. Aysegul Altinay of the Sabanci University said militarism in the media started with the language employed in news coverage. She argued that the language of the media turned war into a natural concept and said that violence was spreading to the whole of the society.

Altinay believes that all forms of social struggle are being regarded as "war" in the media, such as "war on cancer" or "war on beating".

"First of all" she said, "the language used has to be demilitarized". Another problem, she added, was that those supporting war were being seen and portrayed as "realistic" while those seeking peace were regarded as being "idealistic".

In Altinay's views, the demand for peace is being marginalized in Turkey while supporting war is being portrayed as normal. She said the media should not marginalize those wanting peace and expressed her expectation as being "a media which is on the side of peace without a question". Her ideal is to have a media that reflects different alternatives and different views.

Coskun: Conscientious objectors are seen as traitors

Attorney Suna Coskun who has taken on the legal defense of a number of conscientious objectors including Mehmet Tarhan and Osman Murat Ulke said the media was applying censorship on being anti-war and the issue of conscientious objection.

Coskun argued that the mass media preferred to ignore the issue of conscientious objection and that in what was reported, those objecting were being portrayed as people betraying their country. Coskun said media companies were acting in the interest of capital investments as opposed to those of the public and that the society was being mislead with "template news". (AO/TK/II/YE/EU)