When U\u011fur Mumcu was assassinated on January 24, 1993 when a bomb exploded in his car, the legacy he left behind was not only the courage of a journalist but also the manifesto of a conscience. He was the pen that single-handedly deciphered the chains of corruption that stretched from \u2019The Infantryman with the Clumsy Infantry\u201c to \u201dThe Rab\u0131talar\u201c, from the deep state to the mafia. Although he stood close to the ideological roots of the CHP, he would go after corruption, favoritism and irregularities wherever he saw them.<\/p>\n
Mumcu saw journalism not as \u201cvigilantism\u201d but as \u201cadvocacy for the people\u201d. Today, on the contrary, some pens claiming to come from the same leftist tradition are playing the role of \u201chitmen\u201d to cover up the CHP's corruption in the municipalities. Two of the most striking symbols of this corruption are BirG\u00fcn writer Timur Soykan and young journalist Ali Macit.<\/p>\n
Mumcu's journalism was free from ideological blindness. Even in the pre-AKP period, he did not hesitate to write about the rot within the \u201cleft\u201d governments or the bureaucracy. He enlightened the public with his books, columns and documents. It has been 33 years since he was murdered, but his case has still not been \u201csolved\u201d. Because he was not just a journalist, he was the disturbing conscience of the system. Known as an \u201cintellectual\u201d in the CHP tradition, Mumcu did not ignore corruption for \u201cparty interests\u201d; on the contrary, he wanted the party to be held accountable.<\/p>\n
Today, however, BirG\u00fcn columnist Timur Soykan and S\u00f6zc\u00fc Daily reporter\/Medyascope Agenda Producer Ali Macit (born in Istanbul in 1999) are playing the opposite role. While the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality's (IBB) \u201cstock market\u201d case - a huge file with 414 defendants, 143 defendants and 143 confessors - is on the agenda, Soykan, in his BirG\u00fcn article \u201cIBB Indictment-1: Where is the money?\u201d, questions the \u201ccorruption money\u201d in the indictment, emphasizing that there is no trace of the 10-15 percent allegedly transferred to the \u201csystem\u201d and that there is no concrete evidence of money. Likewise, in his broadcasts with Murat A\u011f\u0131rel, he discusses how the figures in the allegations (from 560 billion to 60 billion) have melted down, and manipulates public opinion by likening the case to a \u2019conspiracy\u201c.<\/p>\n
In his \u201cKonu\u015fmazsak Olmaz\u201d programs with Engin Deniz \u0130pek on Medyascope (April 2026), Ali Macit constantly emphasizes the \u201cconfessor crises\u201d and \u201ccontradictory testimonies\u201d; he openly states that the statements of Naim Erol \u00d6zg\u00fcner, Head of IBB IT Department, \u201cdo not reflect the truth\u201d and that his statements are unreliable despite the fact that he created 27 defendants in \u201cAction 13\u201d. He discusses the defenses of the defendants and the details of the trial within a \u201cpolitical\u201d framework, almost acting as the CHP's defense lawyer.<\/p>\n
Other allegations within the CHP, such as the corruption operations against U\u015fak Mayor \u00d6zkan Yal\u0131m and personal scandals, are either silent or dismissed as an \u201cAKP conspiracy\u201d.<\/p>\n
This attitude is classic \u201cvigilantism\u201d: Headline the irregularities of the ruling party, while watering down the same allegations in opposition municipalities with \u201cgossip\u201d or the question \u201cwhere is the money?\u201d. Timur Soykan and Ali Macit do not represent U\u011fur Mumcu's legacy, but the party's \u201cprotective shield\u201d. Mumcu would have blasted corruption with his documents; Soykan weakens the case by asking \u201cwhere is the money?\u201d, while Macit argues that the confessors \u201cdo not reflect the truth\u201d. While journalism once required \u201ccourage, labor and conscience\u201d, today \u201cparty loyalty and job guarantees\u201d are enough for some.<\/p>\n
The tender scandals, appointments of relatives, \u2019torpil\u201c mechanisms and the alleged transfer of public resources to the party organization in the metropolitan cities governed by the CHP since 2019 are no longer a secret. The \u201dIBB stock exchange\u201c file in Istanbul, similar allegations in Ankara and Izmir... While the party administration covers these up as \u201dpolitical lynching\u201c, Timur Soykan and Ali Macit-type journalists in BirG\u00fcn, S\u00f6zc\u00fc, Medyascope and similar media outlets follow the same line. Critical voices are labeled as \u201dAKP agents\u201c and internal opposition is excluded as \u201dchange-makers\u201c.<\/p>\n
This corruption is also poisoning the press. Financial dependency (municipal advertisements, sponsorships, consultancies) and ideological fear turn journalists into \u201chit men\u201d. At the time of U\u011fur Mumcu's murder, journalism was \u201cthe people against the state\u201d; today, \u201cthe truth against the CHP\u201d is silenced. The role of Timur Soykan and Ali Macit is precisely here: To explain the trial process as \u201cno money, confessor crisis\u201d, to manipulate public opinion and to exonerate the party.<\/p>\n
From U\u011fur Mumcu to Timur Soykan to Ali Macit, this corruption is the tragedy not only of a journalist, but of a profession and a political tradition. The CHP received votes from its voters with the promise of \u201cclean governance\u201d, yet its municipalities have become synonymous with corruption allegations. The press, on the other hand, became a part of this corruption, not its defense. Real journalism, like Mumcu, questions the party, the municipality and the president. Vigilantism, on the other hand, protects only \u201cour people\u201d, as Soykan and Macit did.<\/p>\n
If we want freedom of the press and democracy in Turkey, we must first stop this decline from \u201cMumcu to Soykan to Macit\u201d. The CHP leadership must strengthen internal control and investigate corruption allegations instead of covering them up. Journalists should dedicate their pens to the conscience of the people, not to party interests. Otherwise, not only the body of U\u011fur Mumcu will be buried, but also the spirit of journalism. And those who kill that spirit will be remembered as \u201chitmen\u201d in the pages of history.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If we want freedom of the press and democracy in Turkey, we must first stop this decline from \u201cMumcu to Soykan to Macit\u201d.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":285001,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[286],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-285000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-yazarlar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285000"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":285003,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285000\/revisions\/285003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}