Paid journalist jobs and professional organizations

mail Written by Shirin Sevier Instagram Your account caught my attention. He ran a two-day “Brand Conference”. Other journalists and television programmers also took the stage at the conference. Cagdash Ertuna, Ayşe Arman, Duygu Demirdağ, Deniz Bayramoglu, Boz Yildirim, Elif Ercu Demiral, Songul Hatissaru, Kubra Bar, Mehmet Akif Ersoy, Aysun Oz…

“Crypto Fest,” which I noticed due to warnings from my social media followers, is a “Brand Conference”-like organization. Journalists Murat Mouratoglu, Fatih Tayli, Emin Çaba, Ozlem Gurses, and Ugur Gurses also attended this festival organized by a cryptocurrency platform.

Why do journalists join such trade organizations? I think there is no journalistic justification for their rise to that stage. Even if they are taking the money, this is an ethically problematic situation. Having financial relationships with companies that represent news sources creates a conflict of interest.

I wasn’t able to get any specific information about speaker fees, but I did find car flyers on Shirin Seifer’s social media account. “I met this kid over the weekend,” he wrote under the photo, which was taken in front of a new car. He listed the car’s features and added #announcement #launch tags at the end!

“Meeting K… and enjoying the trip,” he wrote under the photo he took in front of another car in the Kaz Mountains last month. There is no advertising sticker, but it bears the car’s branding.

mail Ankara representative Hakan Celik was also talking at length about the foldable mobile phone that he said he “just bought” on his Instagram account. He did not tag it as “advertising”, but he was praising the phone’s brand. He even defended the phone against criticism from one of his followers.

I have written many times before about the disadvantages of journalists engaging in paid work and doing advertising; It is also included in the Declaration of the Rights and Responsibilities of the Turkish Press. A journalist should not exploit the credibility of his profession to market a commercial product. Because a journalist who praises a brand or company for money today opens the door to writing about other topics for money tomorrow; At least it creates such a perception in the news source and its audience.

What I don’t really understand is why professional journalistic organizations just see these as paid jobs? Do they think it’s right for journalists to engage in lucrative work, or are they afraid? Even if they express their opinions, at least we can discuss and talk about this issue…

Hannot trips for the week

While some of our journalist friends were insulted and targeted by politicians, some journalists were on a corporate trip to Detroit, London and Berlin last week. During my daily browsing, I came across reports of three company trips.

Representative of British American Tobacco in Türkiye, World economy And morning With newspapers World of leaders He took journalists from his website to an “e-cigarette summit” in London. The invited journalists were limited to reporting what BAT Turkey Director Murat Guven said instead of what was discussed at the summit. While calling for the legalization of electronic cigarettes in Türkiye –World of leaders However, they did not confirm the harm of such products; It did not include opposing scientific opinions. Publications like this are exactly what the international cigarette monopolies want.

E-commerce company Trendyol in “Evening news of Turkey’s economic world, Milliyet”He invited journalists from Germany to Berlin to watch the friendly match between Germany and Turkey. Journalists who did not mention the match only wrote what Trendyol managers Caglayan Cetin and Erdem Inan said about their company. In fact, they did not need to go to Berlin to convey these words. In fact, all the texts were similar to each other, and the same image was used in all of them. Really the same news Dubai Health AuthorityHe took it from the press release and published it as originating in Istanbul!

On the occasion of the start of direct flights to Turkish Airlines AA, Hurriyet, Haber 7, Milliyet, Posta, SabahTaking reporters from to Detroit. The invited journalists who went to the United States on the first flight mainly reported what Turkish Airlines President Ahmet Polat said. In each, a photo taken with the team while preparing a birthday cake for Bulat was used.

Ultimately, what is written about these trips serves the companies that invite the community, not its information. Otherwise, why would they spend money to take journalists all over America and Europe?

Double standards for imprisoned journalists

I received two letters from Sinjiang Prison. Journalists Dicle Muftuoglu and Sedat Yilmaz, who have been detained for seven months, complain of the indifference of the media and their colleagues towards them.

Dicle Muftuoglu, co-president of the Dicle Firat Journalists Association. He has been detained since May 3, and his first hearing will be held on December 7. A short excerpt from his letter, which he concluded by saying: “We expect all of our colleagues to defend this profession, regardless of who we are”:

“In 2016, I was arrested while covering people staying in tents while a curfew was ongoing in Şırnak. The police who arrested me said, ‘You are meeting people who are defaming the state here.’ He said, ‘I will not let you spread the news.’” In fact, The indictment prepared against me is a document of what the police chief said that day.

This arrest is a situation we encounter often as Kurdish journalists. So we are not surprised. Of course, in an environment where the reaction against this is not common, remains individual, and remains silent when the detainee is Kurdish, freedom of the press will continue to take a beating. “We try to defend the press in the cases we prosecute.”

Sedat Yilmaz, like Dicle Muftuoglu, is the editor-in-chief of Mesopotamia News Agency. He was also arrested on May 3, and his first hearing will be on December 12. “Because I am a Kurdish journalist, many of my colleagues have thoughts like ‘there is a situation’ on their mind,” Yilmaz said in his letter. “Maybe this is my sensitivity to the prisoner,” he began. He stated that he has been held in isolation for seven months, and he briefly continues his letter as follows: the next:

“Unfortunately, all these matters do not concern professional organizations nor my colleagues who are sensitive to freedom of the press and expression. If it were not for the arrests and arrests from time to time under different identities and media, no one would have thought about the detained journalists.

This may be seen as a reprimand, but it is not. As a result of prejudice towards us. So what does my indictment include? I assure you that there is no single piece of evidence. A universal story based on interpretation. I’ve been a journalist for 23 years. My news won awards, I attended training for hundreds of young people, and I shared my experiences.

Dear Sir, Media Ombudsman, I invite you to review the 15 news stories I wrote in earthquake zones. If I discover any of the aforementioned accusations, I will apologize to the public. My friends and I are not dangerous people. You’re not doing anything wrong by touching us. “You are not committing a crime.”

I have summarized these messages so that I can sympathize with them. Dicle Muftuoglu and Sedat Yilmaz are not wrong. Although international press organizations are watching with interest, our national and local professional organizations have double standards towards arrested and detained Kurdish journalists. Not to mention the reaction, the news is not even reported in the mainstream media. For example, the release of 18 journalists detained in the media operation in Diyarbakir after 13 months of detention and their second hearing on 9 November were only reported in three or five places.

Indifference and lack of ownership towards the trials of Kurdish journalists means accepting in advance the accusations of “membership and leadership of an organisation” against them. However, detained journalists in the west of the country are mostly accused of not practicing journalism.

That is why we must deal with the matter without sacrificing objectivity, and we must not allow any journalist to be prosecuted for his or her professional activities. Of course, we reserve all our rights to criticize and object.

Disclosure on social media

On social media Aykırı, Dokuz8 News, Haberlog, left-wing newspaper, Ibrahim Haskologlu, Nesrin Nas, TX News, Gdh The post “Dylan Yechilgos became Prime Minister” made before the vote in the Dutch elections from accounts like “Dylan Yechilgos became Prime Minister” has nothing to do with the facts.

Haskologlu “intentionally published false posts to expose those who stole his news.” defense It is not enough to cover up his mistake. Because Haskologlu is not the one who reveals, but rather the one who reveals.

Haskologlu did not correct the incorrect post himself. After warnings from other accounts and a complaint to CIMER, he deleted it the next day.

Furthermore, a person who identifies himself as a journalist cannot and should not publish false information for whatever reason. Lying and journalism cannot go together.

In one sentence:

• The journalists who were invited to watch the Algeria trip, Türker Akinci, Taha Dagli, Murat Cicek, Fulya Kalfa, Abdülkaliq Şemen, Ahmet Ergen, Burhanetin Duran, Belkis Kılıçkaya, Okan Modrisoğlu, Ridvan Bey and Sina Alkan, mentioned the “50+1” rule. Change” on the agenda during the onboard conversation. He did not ask or could not ask President Erdogan.
• Speech by Communications Director Fakhruddin Altoun at the “Strategic Communication Summit” NTV, CNNTürk, Habertürk, Global, TV100, AHaber, TRT Haber, Ülke TV, TVNet, Kanal B And TGRTIt was broadcast live on .
• Dubai Health Authoritypassed and Evrensel, Hurriyet And official speakerIn the news article he uses, the surname of the child written in symbol and the surname of the child in the garbage house are deciphered by clearly writing his mother’s surname.
• Two attackers who shot journalist Yaman Kaya, who had long been writing about corruption in Bursa’s zoning, while he was driving, were arrested but released under “house arrest.”
• new era, He made news full of lies, as if all the worshipers in the mosque participated in provoking two lunatics and booed him during the funeral prayer of journalist Metin Oka.
• Channel DIn the news, “Her older sister looks like a Sayyan woman with plastic surgery,” the owner of a beauty center mediated the promotion of Doctor HA; The doctor also performed the operation. InstagramAs announced by post.
• The part where Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, in his speech to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, admitted that political decisions had been made in the cases of Selahattin Demirtas, Figen Yüksekdag and Osman Kavala, was not published in the ruling media.
• new dawnHaaretz newspaper published Labor Minister Isikhan’s negative statement regarding minimum wage earners as good news, under the headline “Indication of an annual increase in the minimum wage.”
• new dawnThere was no source of data in the news article for “2 billion liras saved with permanent daylight saving time.”
• evening Writer Hikmet Genç insulted German journalist Michael Fischer, who posed a question to President Erdogan in Berlin, by calling him an “axis” and “I scratched him a lot, Erdogan scratched him too.”
• evening And SpokesmanIn the news of a “torture ring” in Iran, the torture of a person was described in detail and “violent pornography” was produced.
• The text in which Konya Metropolitan Municipality is announced, Akçam, Hurriyet, Türkiye, Yeni Akit And new dawn, He published it as a full-page news story without adding the warning: “This is an advertisement.”
• He went to Ordu in October last year to contribute advertising revenue to the newspaper under the name “Town Meetings”. morning Newspaper writers were in Urdu and Bursa again last week.

Cash, complaint And Your suggestions to: mediaombudsman@gmail.com