Censorship
Rather than restricting press freedom, the government must consider better informing the media and preventing speculation.
Retired generals with thick eyebrows have been appearing on TV screens or giving interviews to news people, elaborating on Turkey’s possible reaction to increased terrorist attacks, which points along the Turkish-Iraqi joint border Turkish troops could enter northern Iraq, how deep they might go into northern Iraq, which areas could be bombarded by Turkish artillery and fighter jets, what might be targeted by Turkey besides the hideouts of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) terrorist group…
Similarly some “strategists” appeared in front of cameras with sketches of northern Iraq and engaged in elaborate comments about the scope and targets of a possible Turkish operation…
Some were talking about the “determination” of Turkey to use “this opportunity” to eradicate the independent state aspirations of the Iraqi Kurds, particularly that of Massoud Barzani, the northern Iraqi local leader and chairman of the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP).
Television channels were full of “emotional” footage about the life stories of the slain soldiers as well as the emotional outpouring of the nation to the streets to condemn separatist terrorism…
That was so until early Tuesday afternoon, when upon a request by Deputy Prime Minister Çemil Çiçek, the Radio and Television High Board (RTÜK) clamped down on radio and television stations with a censure order, restricting broadcasts regarding the attacks by the terrorist PKK.
It was impossible, of course, not to share the concerns of the government over such broadcasts. TV channels were directly or indirectly accusing the government of still not acting against the terrorists despite all the recent suffering, the declared view of the military that there was a need for such a military incursion, and the immense public pressure for an all out war at any cost on the separatist gang and its collaborators at home and in northern Iraq.
For reasons that are obvious to anyone with some intellect, however, the government was at pains to exhaust all possible diplomatic remedy options before undertaking a military operation. Only on Monday, a senior government official was telling us that undertaking a military operation without giving a last chance to diplomacy might land the country into a very difficult situation and the country might pay a very high price, not limited to a possible high number of casualties but more so in the diplomacy and international relations arenas.
With the mounting public pressure – which the government believed was a direct byproduct of the ratings war among TV channels using the recent escalation of terrorist attacks and the national pain felt – it was becoming more and more difficult for the government to continue its last ditch diplomatic efforts, or even to consider confining a possible Turkish military operation to aerial bombing of the separatist terrorist bases in northern Iraq.
In particular, the government was annoyed with the remarks of a retired four-star general who implied during a TV interview that besides the PKK, Turkey must also aim at Barzani and reconsider its relations with Washington as developments have proved that the increased number of U.S.-made guns and ammunition in the possession of the PKK “could not be coincidental.”
What the aim was and what was done were perhaps not the same. The government might have just wanted to prevent a possible provocation that might ignite strife in the country based on ethnic differences; or it might have made the request just for the protection of the psychological health of our children, as the statement underlined. The end product, however, was an example of how governments can clamp down censure on the media…
Whatever the aim is behind it, of course, censure is not something that we or anyone sensitive to freedom of expression, press freedom or the right of the public to be informed can agree with. The way the government handled this problem and the way the RTÜK acted upon the request of the government will be remembered in the years ahead as an unfortunate chapter of the administration’s anti-democratic attitude toward the media. What has happened must enter textbooks as an example of bad use of government power.
Instead, however, the government might have established a well-functioning information unit, bombarded newspapers and radio-TV networks with information, bring clarification on speculative remarks made and manage the situation in a professional manner.
If news of eight soldiers being held hostage by the gang can be kept from the media for more than 24 hours, if no one, even at this moment, can be provided with a satisfactory explanation of the security lapse we have been complaining about, clamping down with a censure cannot help the government “control” the media…