NEWSPAPERS AND PRINT MEDIA: TURKEY

newspapers in turkey emerged during the ottoman empire.

The emergence of newspapers and print media in the later Ottoman Empire had a profound impact on sociocultural and political life. Turkish-language works were first printed in Istanbul in 1727 by Ibrahim Müteferrika, following earlier presses established by Jewish, Armenian, Greek Orthodox, and expatriate Western European communities. The first newspaper, Takvim-i Vekayi (1831; Calendar of events), was an official organ, primarily a means for the state to communicate with provinces. In 1840 Ceride-i Havadis (Journal of news) was established by Englishman William Churchill, and under Ottoman editors and writers it played a pioneering role in creating an appetite for news of current events. With Tercüman-ı Ahvâl (1861; Interpreter of events), edited by Ibrahim Sinasi, and Tasvir-i Efkâr (1862; Mirror of opinion), newspapers became instrumental in the appearance of new types of journalism and literary writing (e.g., novels and new poetry). Writers discussed a newspaper's role in the formation of public opinion and educating the citizenry, and contributed to the emergence of a style of written Turkish simpler and more direct than that typical of official discourse and letters.

Following the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, many restrictions on the press were lifted, and there followed a short-lived explosion of periodical publications in Istanbul and regional centers such as Salonika and Izmir, by and for communities and interests that had come to think of themselves in corporate terms (e.g., ethnic and religious minorities, women, professionals). With the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923 under Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk), the press became subject to the same dramatic centralization as other institutions, and essentially it became an organ of mass mobilization for the Republican People's Party's state. Hakimiyet-i Milliye (National sovereignty) in Ankara and Cumhuriyet (Republic) in Istanbul were left as the only national papers in 1925, and most regional papers were under government control by the time of a press law in 1931. By 1935 there were thirty-eight dailies in the country (twenty-two in Istanbul, six in Izmir, and two in Ankara). Journals and reviews such as Ülkü (Ideal) also tended to reflect the developmentalistpopulist nature of the state, presenting articles in a direct language on regional and national culture, folklore, history, social conditions, and new technological developments, with little discussion of "political" topics.

With multiparty politics in 1946 came liberalizing measures, including easing of the press laws, and the emergence of real mass circulation newspapers such as Vatan, Milliyet, and Hürriyet, which saw themselves less as instruments of political mobilization and more as means of information for citizens in a democratic system. Under the Democrat Party a more liberal press law was passed, but by 1953 the ruling party tried to silence political opposition and the press, resorting to closures and jailing critics. The coup of 1960 was followed by a liberalization of the press, and journalists themselves drew up a Code of Ethics that was signed by all the major papers. These liberties were restricted after the coup of 1971, and again after that of 1980, but the public's expectation of an independent press was irreversible. Through the 1990s Turkey was criticized by several human-rights organizations for imprisoning journalists. With the winding down of the Kurdish separatist insurgency in 1999 and new legislation in line with European Union requirements press restrictions have been lifted gradually, and critical and investigative journalism has become characteristic of some newspapers.

see also radio and television: turkey.

Bibliography

Groc, Gérard. "Journalists as Champions of Participa-tory Democracy." In Politics in the Third Turkish Republic, edited by Metin Heper and Ahmet Evin. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994.

Heper, Metin, and Demirel, Tanel. "The Press and the Consolidation of Democracy in Turkey." Middle Eastern Studies 32, no. 2 (1996): 109–123.

Karpat, Kemal. "The Mass Media: Turkey." In Political Modernization in Japan and Turkey, edited by Robert Ward and Dankwart Rustow. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1964.

brian silverstein