"Scandal on TRT"

I found out the ‘documentary’ on Sweden and the Nobel Prize aired on TRT-1 on Dec.11 after I read Sabah Daily’s news entitled “Pamuk and Nobel Scandal on TRT.”


Some friends of mine who had recorded the program sent a copy to me the next day, I watched it. It was asserting the following views with incredible partiality and prejudice:


Sweden was a country exporting weapons and war to the rest of the world and lacking freedom of expression. Women were subject to intense violence, people suffered from alcoholism and mental illnesses, racism prevailed and the Sami/Lappish minority was deprived of all rights and were subject to genocide in the country...


The Nobel Prize and similar international awards serve U.S. “global cultural imperialism.” Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk was awarded this prize for this very reason. The Swedes did not know anything about the Nobel prize nor about Pamuk...


Sweden, described in this program with this and other similarly fabricated information, did not resemble the country that’s the world’s most democratic, secular and social state of law and number one in establishing male/female equality.


This Sweden also did not resemble at all the country I had previously lived in for nine years and had the opportunity to know closely.


The massive distortion was that the Samis/Lapps had been subject to genocide. It is true that the Lapps who live in northern Europe, including northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland and the Kola Peninsula of northwest Russia, have their own language and religion and were subject to cultural assimilation.


(Is there any European country that did not follow such assimilation policies in the past?)


However, it is not true that the Lapps were subject to genocide or massacre. The Lapps with a total population of approximately 85,000 today have full freedom of language and culture in Sweden, Norway and Finland and have established their own parliament. This information can be found in encyclopedias.


It was quite evident the ‘documentary’ reflected views of opponents of the West and the EU lying within state institutions.


It was obvious the goal was to degrade Sweden, the Swedish Academy’s Nobel Prizes and Orhan Pamuk, the first Nobel-awarded Turk.


It was also openly said that in case Turkey achieved its EU reforms, “nothing would remain of the country.”


In short, the program was a real scandal.


For these reasons


1) The most basic rules of journalism makes it obligatory to convey objective and correct information, and to introduce different points of view to any matter at hand. Of course, Sweden, Nobel Prizes and Orhan Pamuk can and must all be criticised. But, information that comes from news media must be true enough not to distort facts. A program like this, that is not compatible with journalism principles and ethics, can hardly be encountered even in the Turkish news media with its low standards.


2) Although after the 1971 military intervention the TRT ceased to be an autonomous organization and shifted towards a position where it only was used as a tool to promote official ideology, the TRT Act makes the following points: “Not to keep broadcast content onesided and one dimensional in an effort to supply free and healthy way of public thinking; not to become utilized by any political parties, groups, or for religious or ideological purposes... To maintain respect for personal honor and to remain loyal to honesty.”


3) The program lacks the sense of journalistic responsibility because it clouds support from the entire body of Turkish parliamentarians for accession to the European Union; because it blackens plans on the part of the Turkish government to open Turkish Cyprus and start direct flights to Ercan Airport.


There is no doubt that this won’t be the end of a tradition of scandals at the TRT, a government-funded organization ostensibly with a sense of public accountability.


Autonomous both managerially and financially, adherent to journalism ethics and principles, the TRT ought to have set a fine example for the rest of the Turkish media, and to ensure pluralism in the media; however, the current situation of this organization leaves much to be desired.

Sahin Alpay

Thank you for your post and for clearing things out! Also thank you for defending my country!
I think your example was the most extreme intent I have seen so far to discredit the Nobel prize won by Orhan Pamuk. But it is far from the only one...