Do Media Leave Giving Support to Violence?
The news covering that during 44th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival the head of festival and TÜRSAK Engin Yiğitgil applied verbal and physical violence against the press advisor Nimet Demir took place in written and visual media in previous week.
In programme of Gece Gündüz which is broadcasted in NTV, the news was started by the speech of programme announcer Yekta Kopan as following: "There occurs polemics and discussions in all grand organizations. Sometimes these are created. Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival did not pass without polemics either. During the festival, different discussions which we even overlooked came to on the ear. There were again discussions in closing day yesterday." The arguments of Engin Yiğitgil and Nimet Demir were given place at the news and the following comment was made: "Everything aside, Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival showed its respect again this year with a nearly excellent organization. The discussions lived at the last day can be seen as sine qua nons of this kind of organizations by its nature most probably." We came upon similar comments in speeches of different writers and movie makers.
We are asking to NTV, to custodians of the programme Gece Gündüz and to everybody shosing a similar approach: In which media ethics can be these kinds of approaches which ignore the violence and discrimination against women, blanket these and legitimizing the violence gradually? Up to when you will continue to view women's oppression, being silenced and sacrificed for the things you see more "grand" and "important" as natural?
Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival is an important and valuable festival for the cinema of Turkey. It has been produced up to today with the efforts of hundreds and thousands of cinema workers, people of Antalya as householders and Antalya Municipality and will continue again with the help of these efforts. However, nobody has he right to apply violence to anybody sheltering behind this truth. Whatever is the position of the person who applies violence, blanketing this issue that should be criticized openly and in a net manner is the biggest disrespectfulness which will be made to this festival and to the workers of the festival. Actual thing that can adumbrate the respectfulness of the festival is trying to present this violence "as sine qua non, by its nature" of the festival organization and festival philosophy and to make public opinion to accept it.
The "grandeur" of none organization can be reasons justifying the violence to anybody held by anybody.
We are reminding their responsibilities in preventing the violence and discrimination against women to all media institutions NTV coming first; and waiting to stop their approaches viewing violence as natural and legitimate and trying to demote it to an unimportant detail urgently.
Women's NEDIA WATCH GROUP - MEDİZ