Turkish newspapers appear to be healthy
By Gary Graham | September 17, 2008 | Turkey
Wednesday was another fascinating day in Turkey for a group of 16 journalists who are on a 10-day trip to three cities. We started our day in Istanbul and finished it in Ankara, a 45-minute flight away.
Most of us were quite surprised as we flew into the two-year-old Ankara airport. I say surprised because the brown, mountainous landscape that greeted us when we came down out of the clouds was quite different than the seaside view we had become accustomed to in Istanbul.
Our morning in Istanbul included a lengthy session with the Turkish prime minister's chief foreign policy adviser, followed by a panel of three journalists. We also heard from a professor and a former Wall Street Journal reporter who is now an analyst with a think tank called the International Crisis Group.
All of these panels and interviews have been arranged in advance by our trip sponsors, the International Reporting Project at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
It's difficult to grasp the state of newspapers in another country, especially when you can't read Turkish or speak the language. There are 23 national dailies here and it appears they are doing better financially than most U.S. newspapers these days. Yavuz Baydar, ombudsman and columnist for the Sabah newspaper, said the health of the Turkish newspaper industry “can't compare to the misery of American newspapers.” He said Turkish newspaper circulation is actually increasing.
Baydar and the other journalists describe a very contentious newspaper market here. Baydar said the prime minister, who we will meet on Thursday, is engaged in a “dog fight” with a powerful media conglomerate known as Dogan. The Dogan proprietor has vast business interests and has been ensnared in some huge controversies involving his holdings and his relationship with the government.
The panelists complained that Turkey does not have a “quality newspaper” like the New York Times, Washington Post or The Guardian. Nor does the country have television broadcasting similar to the quality of the BBC, NPR or PBS.
As in the rest of the world, internet growth in Turkey has skyrocketed. Baydar said there were 7.6 million internet users here in 2003. By 2007, that number had risen to 23 million.
Baydar and Zafer Atay of the Turkish Journalists Association lamented that large companies with huge non-media holdings have taken over many newspapers. “These proprietors have imposed self-censorship.” The owners' self-interests post conflicts and result in the self-censorship, much to the consternation of their newsrooms. Baydar said the new owner of his paper, Sabah, has as its CEO a son-in-law of the prime minister.
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