TAZ has come out with a Turkish version of its newspaper on World Press Freedom Day. The edition appears amid President Erdogan's media censorship and crackdown on journalists in the last years.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/O. Kose
Advertisement
The TAZ's Tuesday edition was rechristened "Die Günlük Gazete" (Turkish for "The Daily Gazette"), providing extensive coverage in Turkish on Ankara's increasingly brutal policy of media censorship. The switch, likely aimed at Germany's large Turkish-speaking community, coincided with World Press Freedom Day.
In the newspaper's leading essay with the title "The journalist is always guilty," the left-leaning TAZ asked: why was Ankara so secretive and what did it want to hide?
Erdogan's party, the AKP, has been in power for the last 14 years in Turkey. "There have been dubious deals, fatal mistakes, financial interests, the illusory fantasy of an undivided and unified Turkish state as well as the wrongful policy of war in Kurdish regions. All these are reasons for the 'secrecy' and for denying information. Simply put, the government hides anything, which it does not want anyone to see," the TAZ wrote.
But what really irked the authors was how the sequence of events typically unfolded after a bomb explosion, a suicide attack or a massacre. "First there is an explosion, then the Internet and social media slow down. Then there is a news blackout," the editors said, referring to recent terror attacks in Ankara, Istanbul, Suruc and Diyarbakir.
The TAZ's special edition on World Press Freedom DayImage: www.taz.de
The government and state in Turkey were forcing journalists to adopt a cynical attitude, the daily said. It summed up the attitude reporters in Turkey have to adopt as: "Don't press for more, be satisfied with what you've been offered and don't show your anger."
Reporters were now effectively working as "code crackers," trying to unveil the truth that the president was hiding, the TAZ wrote.
Erdogan and press freedom in Germany
Press freedom in Europe is the lowest in Turkey and Poland, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF). However, while Poland ranked 49th of 180 countries in RSF's 2016 table, Turkey was 151st, nestled between Tajikistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Regardless, Ankara remains a key European Union partner in dealing with refugees from the Middle East.
Erdogan's government has now signed a deal with the EU to take back Syrian refugees making their way to Europe over the Aegean Sea, with the EU exchanging them for refugees from camps in Turkey.
Marcel Offermann created this "Erdogan" doll to show solidarity with satirist BöhmermannImage: Marcel Offermann
Besides chasing journalists in its own countries, Turkey has also become more pro-active in seeking to prosecute international broadcasters and journalists. The most famous recent case involved German satirist Jan Böhmermann, who was charged with insulting a foreign head of state after he recited a poem criticizing the Turkish president last month.
On the request of Erdogan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel allowed authorities to investigate the satirist and potentially press charges.
8 films featuring journalists' fight for freedom of expression
On World Press Freedom Day (3.5.2016) we're honoring those journalists who've fought for their right to freedom of expression by looking at eight films telling their stories.
Image: Bild: BR/Wiedemann & Berg Film
Razor's Edge
The 2016 winner of Deutsche Welle's Best of the Blogs (The Bobs) prize for citizen journalism, the documentary "Razor's Edge" examines the situation that many secular bloggers and writers face in Bangladesh after attacks have left numerous people dead at the hands of religious extremists, including four in the last five weeks, because of their writing.
Image: Nastiker Dharmakatha
Frame By Frame
"Frame By Frame" follows four of Afghanistan's new crop of young photojournalists, who're learning how to shoot stories after years of living under a regime which banned photography. After a screening at the US Embassy in Kabul, seven journalists from the local TOLO news were killed in a suicide bombing, driving home the dangers these journalists face every day.
Image: Film Fprout
All the President's Men
Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were two journalists working for the "Washington Post" who led the investigation of US President Richard Nixon's role in the Watergate hotel break-in that eventually led to his resignation. The pair wrote of their experience in "All the President's Men" which was made into a film by Robert Redford.
Image: Warner Bros./dapd
Good Night and Good Luck
Filmed in black and white to capture the atmosphere of broadcast journalism's early days "Good Night and Good Luck" stars George Clooney and focuses on tv newsman Edward R. Murrow's fight to expose the tactics employed in the US by Senator Joseph McCarthy in his 1953 "Red Scare" campaign to uncover "Communists" in the government and celebrity circles, a label which ruined many careers at the time.
Image: Kinowelt
People vs. Larry Flynt
The lawsuit by Reverend Jerry Falwell against Larry Flynt, the publisher of the nude magazine "Hustler" serves as the backdrop of the 1996 film the "People vs. Larry Flynt." The film about the controversial pornography publisher shows his clash with religious institutions and the law.
Image: dpa
Forbidden Voices
Three young women bloggers are the focus of Zurich-based director Barbara Miller's documentary (2012). From Cuba, China and Iran respectively, Yoani Sánchez, Zeng Jinyan und Farnaz Seifi use social media to bring awareness to the world about life under the dictatorial regimes in their homelands. Their work gets so much attention that they end up risking their lives to get the stories out.
Image: Das Kollektiv
Burma VJ
Danish Filmmaker Anders Østergaard focuses on the drama that unfolded in Burma in 2007 after Buddhist nuns and monks took to the streets to protest drastic price increases. After the protests turned against the country's military leaders, international news teams were kicked out of the country and filming could only be done in secret.
Image: flickr/Steve Rhodes
Die Spiegel Affaire (The Spiegel Affair)
Germany's "Der Spiegel" news magazine published an article about the sad state of the West German military in 1962, an article which brought out such an immense rage in Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauß that a search of the magazine's office was conducted. The arrests of editors led to an uproar among citizens who saw it as an attack on press freedom and protested, as this ARD film portrays.
