Since the February 2023 earthquakes, newspapers in the four most affected provinces —Adıyaman, Hatay, Kahramanmaraş, and Malatya—have been operating under "force majeure" conditions, providing relief to taxpayers and business owners by allowing them to defer tax and insurance payments.
The government, which had originally planned to end the force majeure period on Aug 31, extended it by another three months on Sep 3, pushing the deadline to Nov 30. It is now expected that the force majeure designation will be extended again until the end of the year.
The Press Advertisement Institution (BİK), the public agency responsible for financially supporting press outlets by placing public announcements in periodicals, also extended certain exemptions for local newspapers and online news outlets in these four provinces until Dec 31. With this decision, newspapers and online outlets can publish public announcements until the end of the year without meeting minimum sales or traffic requirements, ensuring they continue receiving payment. What happens after December remains uncertain.
Currently, Hatay is home to 24 local newspapers—19 in print and five online. Adıyaman has 15, eight of which are printed. Malatya has eight newspapers, including two in print, and Kahramanmaraş has 13, with eight in print. Many of these 60 newspapers may be forced to shut down, and over 400 journalists are at risk of losing their jobs in case the exemptions do not continue.
‘It will be very difficult for us’
Sadet Berkyürek, managing editor of the İskenderun Ses newspaper in Hatay, told bianet that since the earthquake, they have faced postponed tax and insurance debts.
"We kept our staff on even though we couldn’t work after the quake," Berkyürek said. "We had to register both ourselves and our employees for insurance, which added to our financial burden. We are publishing under the uncertainty of the force majeure situation. We don’t know how the payments will be handled. They might demand everything at once, or allow us to pay in installments, or find another solution."
Berkyürek added that before the earthquake, İskenderun Ses was printed locally, but they are now forced to print in Adana. She said that if the force majeure designation is lifted, they will face significant challenges.
"Before the earthquake, we were in an economic crisis and decided to pool resources with two other newspapers to print at a friend’s press. But our printing facilities were destroyed in the quake. Our machines are still buried under rubble. We don’t have the time, conditions, or workforce to recover them. Besides, there’s nowhere in the city to set up our equipment.
"After the earthquake, we wanted to get back into production, but we couldn’t find anywhere in İskenderun to print. That’s why we moved our printing operations to Adana, and we’ll have to keep it that way.
"We currently print 16 pages in tabloid format. Once force majeure ends, we will run into problems. If we are forced to print in Hatay, the page count and size of the paper will increase, and we might have to produce 24 pages overnight. This will mean more labor, more content to produce, and higher costs. The lifting of force majeure will be very tough for us."
‘We're still working at a container’
Berkyürek highlighted that despite more than 19 months passing since the earthquake, life in İskenderun is far from normal.
"Delaying payments and then suddenly expecting us to pay everything isn’t a solution. We didn’t return to normal overnight. Just because a year and a half has passed doesn’t mean everything is back to normal. We haven’t even managed to get our equipment out of the rubble and set up somewhere else. We’re still working from a container office.
"The municipality has started a new project to cover up areas that still look like rubble. They’ve plastered over debris, and painted wall murals. The front of our building has a mural of doves flying over waves on a blue background. But behind that, it’s still a ruin. Just because the outside is plastered over, does that mean we’re supposed to say everything is back to normal?" (HA/VK)