Earthquake Deals is another blow to Turkey’s struggling local media

Gaziantep / Hatay / Diyarbakir / Washington –

Local journalists in southern Turkey oscillate between mourning their loved ones and reporting on the scale of the devastation in their cities.

On the night of the February 6 earthquake, Sinasi Annan, a reporter for Ihlas Agency in Sanliurfa, rushed outside with his wife and children and went to an area with collapsed buildings to report the damage.

Having found a safe place to leave his immediate family – a vast area across from his father-in-law’s house – Inan went to his hometown of Adiyaman, where he discovered about 40 of his relatives among the dead.

Sinasi Inan, correspondent of Ihlas News Agency in Sanliurfa, shares his experience reporting on the earthquake that hit southern Turkey, February 6, 2023 (Photo: Orhan Ercilik/Gaziantep)

“We came to the region without fully experiencing the pain of losing our relatives, and still doing our work,” Annan told VOA, noting the importance of reporting the story is a journalist’s reaction.

Gaziantep resident Kadir Gunes for Demirören News Agency described suffering in the early days of the earthquake as he and his family used their car as a shelter like other survivors.

Demiroren News Agency reporter Kadir Gunes describes the suffering in the early days of the earthquake that struck southern Turkey, February 6, 2023 (Photo: Orhan Ercilik/Gaziantep)

“I produced my stories in the car and slept in the car,” Gunes told VOA. Usually we hear about an accident first and go to the scene. This time, we suffered the accident ourselves.”

Gunes’ wife and their two-year-old son later went to stay with her family.

Earthquakes of magnitude 7.8 and 7.6 that rocked Turkey and Syria killed nearly 50,000 people. At least 26 local journalists in 10 Turkish provinces were among the victims.

Survival

As the journalists mourn their personal losses, they also reflect on the physical and mental impact the earthquake may have on Turkish media.

“It will be a long process for Hatay and the local media to recover from this, and it may take three or five years,” said Abdullah Temizürk, owner of Hatay and Hatay Süz newspapers. I don’t know if those who live with this fear will return. But they must return. This is our home.

Abdullah Temzyurk, owner of the Hatay and Hatay Süz newspapers, told VOA that four people from his crew lost family members in the quake. (Photo: Murat Karabulut/Hatay)

Temeziork noted that four people from his crew lost family members in the quake.

As thousands of people have left Hatay, one of the hardest-hit provinces in Turkey, Timiziürk believes that local media should report on the repercussions, given that national and international media will eventually leave.

I think we should keep talking about Hatay. But everyone is in shock. “I think we need to do our job and cover the news as much as possible,” said Temeziork.

challenges

According to the Media Research Association’s 2021 report, local newspapers in Turkey have suffered from an economic crisis, high printing costs, and declining advertising revenue and subscriptions. Earthquakes presented new challenges to their survival.

Mustafa Günüleri, owner of Kent Media in the Iskenderun district of Hatay, said he lost all video and audio equipment in the earthquake, which destroyed his business. He is now worried about how he will support his family and keep his media outlet working.

Mustafa Günüleri, owner of Kent Media in Iskenderun district of Hatay, shows how the building that once housed his office is now destroyed (Photo: Murat Karabulut/Hatay)

Even after a few months, then [local media outlets] Ask the shopkeepers to subscribe or support advertising, they will kick us out. Your shop is over, your employees may have died. A local journalist comes… and asks for your support. “You’re going to kick them out,” said Gonoleri.

There is no public data on the number of Turkish media affected by the earthquake. On February 23, Cavit Erkilink, head of the state-run Press Advertising Agency of Turkey (BIK), announced that 130 local newspapers had been affected.

BIK offered a $42,370 relief package to local newspapers in the affected counties. The agency also relieved newspapers of having to meet minimum circulation numbers to receive general advertising revenue. This exemption remains in effect through January 2024.

The earthquakes also silenced Diyarbakir-based Kan Radio and Television for 24 days – the longest outage experienced by Turkey’s first Kurdish-language media outlet in 28 years. Twelve employees are now out of work.

There were short interruptions [government limitations on] Kurdish broadcasting [in the past]But this is the first time we have seen such a long outage,” Ahmet Dalgic, editor-in-chief of Kan Radio and Television, told VOA.

He said the outlet would have to stop broadcasting if it could not recover equipment and archives from the badly damaged complex where the radio and television station is located.

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