The Communication Workers Solidarity Network organized a meeting at the Nazım Hikmet Cultural Center in Ankara titled ’From Noise to Truth: Iran, war and journalism“ with the participation of Left News Portal editor Yalçın Cuğ and Dış Haber editor Emre Köse. The meeting discussed how the Iranian attack launched by US imperialism in partnership with Israel was covered in both the international and national press; topics such as the fight against disinformation, censorship and self-censorship, and journalism in times of crisis were discussed.
While US imperialism, in cooperation with Israel, has once again turned the Middle East into a ring of fire Communication Workers Solidarity Network, held a meeting in Ankara to evaluate the media coverage of the issue. Yalçın Cuğ, editor of Sol News Portal, who spoke at the meeting under the heading of combating disinformation, stated that the media's attempts to portray Iran as unfair and weak violate the principles of journalism, while Emre Köse, editor of Foreign News, emphasized that censorship of journalists, especially in such crisis agendas, prevents the fulfillment of public duty.
“THE IRAN AGENDA HAS EXPOSED THE HYPOCRISY OF LIBERALS”
The mainstream media defends it in all circumstances and never stops talking about it “neutrality”, Cuğ argued that the media's positioning on the issue of the US attack on Iran clearly demonstrated how the principle of "objectivity" actually destroys objectivity, noting that what really matters is not impartiality, but adherence to objectivity.
“We all learn in school that a journalist must be impartial. And when we look at the liberal journalists today, none of them can stop talking about the 5N1K rule. However, we have seen and are seeing how the same media fails this test in the Iran agenda. On the one hand, “Israel attacked Iran”, on the other hand, “Iran did this, Iran did that” and so on. But we know that the issue and the news is not just about this. On the other hand, the insistence of those who claim impartiality to use a language that accuses Iran, without bringing imperialist calculations into the mix, is not journalism, it is hypocrisy.”
“JOURNALIST IS ON THE SIDE OF TRUTH”
On the other hand, referring to the media's funding connections and political affiliations, Cuğ stated that where such dirty alliances exist, what is called impartiality is “insincere” and emphasized that this situation also weakens the connection with reality.
“It is impossible for a journalist working for an organization that receives funding from the US or its affiliates to be impartial, even if he personally thinks Iran is right. On the contrary, he is forced to report a news story that favors imperialism. And we are forced to take sides “in favor of the powerful”. Because we are all under pressure of speed and our first reflex is to access and feed on what is easy, what is widespread. For example, we don't have time to dig into Iran's local media, they don't give us time to get to the bottom of things. On the other hand, a statement from Iran is sometimes not even included in our news reports, while we are asked to take any statement from the White House verbatim. In short, those who say they are neutral are themselves a party; what they want is for us not to be able to take sides. A journalist is a party, a real party.”
“EDITORIAL INDEPENDENCE PASSES THROUGH ORGANIZATION”
Köse said that media bosses intensify the pressure and censorship on journalists in times of crisis such as war, and emphasized that the way to fight against this obstruction is through unity and organization.
In times of crisis, news directors immediately send an e-mail to their staff with a framework. This email contains limits on what journalists should and should not say. We saw this in Venezuela, for example. Most organizations quickly banned their employees from saying “Maduro has been kidnapped”. Or we see examples like this in the Iranian agenda. Everyone is serving it as a “war”. However, there is no war under equal conditions; on the contrary, the imperialist US and its collaborator Israel, which planned everything, attacked another independent country (Iran). But the word “attack” is either forbidden or later corrected to "attack". But the same institutions do not forget to include the phrase "editorial independence" in their employment contracts. These institutions even determine the sources that can/can't be used. So first of all, we need to increase our support for alternative media. Secondly, we need to increase our organization in order to resist this pressure and censorship and to protect our originality.