Turkey's Hurriyet protests Washington Post on PKK

Washington Post in self-criticism

Accused by Turkish citizens of “showing the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) members as moderates,” due to a story on the Turkish military

20 dk ve Gaste: Sonunda Türkiye’de Ücretsiz Gazete Rekabeti! İlk Düşünceler, Artılar, Eksiler

By H. Cihan Salim on reklamcılık

Sabah saatlerinde İstanbul’un işlek merkezlerinin çoğunda ücretsiz iki tabloid gazete dağıtılıyor. Maalesef Türkçe’ye karşı saygısızlığımız ve özensizliğimiz öyle noktaya vardı ki “gazete” gibi sosyal ve edebi sorumluluğu tarihsel olan bir yayın organına bile dilimizde olmayan bir kelimeyi isim olarak verebildik: Gaste. Diğer yayının adı ise 20 dk.

 

Media attention cartograms

By Ethan

I was thrilled to get an email from Nicholas Kayser-Bril earlier today, introducing me to his research with Gilles Bruno on media attention. The pair are making lovely cartograms - maps distorted to show a particular factor - based on how much attention various media sources are paying to countries around the world.

The work has a good deal in common with my Global Attention Profiles research… except that the maps these gentlemen are making are quite beautiful, in constrast to mine, and their server isn’t dead half the time.

A woman’s right to speak

If you haven't seen them yet, then I strongly suggest popping round to YouTube to have a look. The new television advertisements for Cumhuriyet newspaper are very clever, and best of all they have an economy of style.

Five years on: media's role in Iraq

The press plays an unwitting role in the subtle battle to influence public opinion.

TDN's Sönmez awarded by FMD

The Photojournalists Association (FMD) named a photographer from the Turkish Daily News the best photographer of the 2007 in two different categories. The FMD said yesterday that

Communication on the Balkans. An interview with Prof. Nikos Leandros

By Vaya

Vassilena Valchanova, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”   Bulgaria  Nikos Leandros is a professor at Panteion University, Athens. He is also one of the main organizers of the Balkan Forum for Communication.  1. Prof. Leandros, as a lecturer in Pantheion University (one of the biggest and most popular universities in Greece with lots of foreign students) how, in your opinion,

Bulgaria’s account on the 3rd meeting of the BFC

By Vaya

Vassilena Valchanova, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”   Journalism, PR and Publishing students from the Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” presented Bulgaria at the 3rd annual Balkan Forum for Communication, which took place from June 11th  to June 15th  in the Greek city of Kavala. At the height of the summer

Press Roundup

Clashes erupted between security forces and citizens celebrating the spring festival of Nevruz in the eastern city of Van on Saturday. Permission to hold the event had not been requested in advance from the police. Dozens of people were injured.

Turkish Press Scanner

SABAH Police's promo film about suicide halts traffic on Bosporus Bridge A location shoot of a suicide scene for a promotional film produced for the approaching Police Week brought traffic to a halt on the Bosporus Bridge Sunday morning, daily Sabah reported yesterday. The Istanbul Police Department requested the production of a short promotional film about work conditions of police and its relations with citizens. The film will be displayed during Police Week that will take place in April. The location shoot of the first couple of scenes was held on the Bosporus Bridge during the early hours Sunday. After police blocked one of the traffic lanes going toward the European side

Turkish Press Scanner

Surprise decision by district court - Zaman A local court annulled a previous decision by the Council of State to demolish 833 luxury villas in a large residential district of Istanbul, daily Zaman

Press Roundup

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attended the 468th Mesir Festival in Manisa on Sunday, along with his wife, Emine, and former parliamentary speaker and Manisa native Bülent Arınç. He threw packets of mesir candy to the crowd from the Sultan Mosque.

Turkish Press Scanner

Hotel prices soar due to summit Hotels are charging as much as 1,000-1,200 euros for rooms for the dates during which the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank meetings will take place, reported daily Vatan yesterday. Both meetings are scheduled for Oct. 6-7, 2009 in Istanbul. Several ministers attempted to intervene, but many hotels are insisting on raising their prices for the duration of the meeting. If the problem is not solved before April when the organization committee will meet IMF officials in Washington for the last time before the summit, the meeting will be held in another city or cruise ships will provide acco

Turkish Press Scanner

HÜRRİYET Headscarf-wearing staff member in chief prosecutor's officeOne of the staff members at the secretariat of the Supreme Court of Appeals Chief Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalçınkaya, who recently filed a lawsuit to shut down the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), reportedly dons a headscarf, daily Hürriyet reported yesterday. The headscarf-wearing staff member, assigned to the office during Yalçınkaya's predecessor Nuri Ok's term, was recorded on cameras entering the court building in Ankara. Yalçınkaya, who became chief prosecutor after Ok's term ended, continued to work with her. As a state employee, the secretariat member, who dons Islamic headgear in her pr

Press Roundup

Traders work during the morning session at the stock exchange in İstanbul on Monday. The YTL fell almost 4 percent and shares plunged 7.5 percent as fears over the global banking system intensified and state prosecutors sought to close down Turkey’s ruling AK Party.

Press Roundup

In villages on the outskirts of the western Turkish city of Denizli, most households average at least three or four bicycles, with cycling the most common means of transportation in the area. The villages remind one of Beijing, where there are over 9 million registered bicycles and the commuting bicycles are seen as one of the symbols of China.

Press Roundup

A US soldier watches as a statue of Iraq’s overthrown leader, Saddam Hussein, falls in central Baghdad in April 2003. The fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, which caused great suffering and much political turmoil in the war-torn country, was marked on Wednesday.

Press Roundup

President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan laid red carnations on the graves of martyrs of the Battle of Çanakkale on the occasion of the 93rd anniversary of the Çanakkale victory.

Press Roundup

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan greets the public at a party meeting in the southeastern city of Şanlıurfa on Sunday, where he lashed out at a prosecutor’s bid to close down his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).

Press Roundup

Turkish demonstrators from the human rights group MAZLUM-DER on Friday waved banners that read “The US equals cruelty, violence, oppression,” during a protest of the US-led invasion of Iraq in downtown İstanbul.

Turkish Press Scanner

HÜRRİYET We cannot take your blood but thanks for the gesture Istanbul University's Bone Marrow Bank called on people through a television series to donate blood, however volunteers were rejected by the hospital due to a lack of equipment, daily Hürriyet reported yesterday. Last week the bank urged citizens to donate blood during the popular television show “Binbir Gece” aired Tuesday night. Afterward countless people responded to the call and went to the bank to donate blood, only to be rejected by the hospital personnel. They said they could not draw blood at the moment because the hospital lacked the required medical equipment. Professor Nevin Yalman said the hospital

Press Roundup

Volunteers, most of whom are retired teachers, lawyers and doctors, teach illiterate women -- including some over 80 years old -- how to read and write as part of an initiative launched by the Mother and Child Foundation (AÇEV) to support educational activities.

Press Roundup

Universities started to re-impose a ban on Muslim headscarves on campuses yesterday after the Council of State annulled a notice that the Higher Education Board previously sent to university rectors instructing them to comply with constitutional amendments lifting the headscarf ban.

Press Roundup

Chief of General Staff Yaşar Büyükanıt (c), former Chiefs of General Staff retired Gen. Hilmi Özkök (r) and retired Gen. Doğan Güreş (l) attended an international terrorism conference organized by the military at COE-DAT in Ankara on Monday.

Press Roundup

The Young Civilians, a youth group which strongly opposes intervention in politics, protested the closure case filed against the ruling Justice and Development Party in a demonstration held in İstanbul on Saturday.

Turkish Press Scanner

TF Turkey poisoned by pesticides withdrawn from circulation in Europe Turkey continues to use three major pesticides that have already been withdrawn from circulation in European Union agricultural markets, daily Taraf reported yesterday. The three pesticides, which contain highly toxic substances and therefore carry cancer risks, are the most used ones in Turkish agriculture since 2006. Indeed, the use of pesticides has been rapidly increasing in Turkey for the last three decades. Annual consumption of pesticides was about 84,000 tons in 1979. In 2006, that amount increased to 183,000 tons. Most Turkish people don't know anything about the safety and reliability of agric

Press Roundup

Turkish citizen Gizem Altın and her American husband, both environmentalists, aim to travel from İstanbul to Sydney on bike in support of a campaign launched by the Turkish Foundation for Reforestation, Protection of Natural Habitats and Combating Soil Erosion (TEMA) to fight global warming. The couple set out on their long journey from İstanbul on Sunday.

Turkish Press Scanner

RADİKAL Explosives carried by 12-year-old girl A 12-year-old girl carried the package containing two-and-half kilograms of C-4 explosives, which was recently left at a bus stop in Turkey's southern province of Adana, and which was neutralized by police, daily Radikal reported yesterday. After a bomb was left at a bus stop in Adana recently, police launched an operation targeting a house in the city and arrested 12 persons including a few children and a woman who reportedly is a former member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The woman, who is allegedly the plotter of the prevented bomb attack, reportedly participated in attacks launched by the PKK from the moun

Turkish Press Scanner

CUMHURİYET Ground operation into northern Iraq successful, says intelligence report An intelligence assessment of the Turkish Armed Forces' (TSK) recent ground offensive into northern Iraq against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorists said the operation achieved its main goals, reported daily Cumhuriyet yesterday. The terrorist organization has been dragged into internal conflicts, the Kurds became divided, and northern Iraq's administration has lost hope to find supporters in Turkey as a resıult of the operation, the report said. But above all, the notion of becoming solidly entrenched in the region where “Turkey cannot launch any operation against Iraq, which is

Turkish Press Scanner

TF Tourism has trouble with security and hygiene Turkey ranked 54th among 130 countries in terms of competitiveness in tourism, daily Taraf reported yesterday. The second annual Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report issued by the World Economic Forum revealed that Turkey takes a back seat to the competition due to infrastructure deficiencies in health, hygiene, ground transportation and security concerns. Turkey ranked 79th in terms of security and public order, while it ranked 62nd in health and hygiene. “The country should make preserving its natural resources a priority,” the report said. The report includes an index to measure travel and tourism competitiveness. Legal regulations in

Turkish Press Scanner

CUMHURİYET Gender discrimination claims in hospitals based on religious beliefs Medical attendants, who were trained for eight months and most of whom were headscarf-wearing women, refused to shake hands with the men handing them their certificates, daily Cumhuriyet reported yesterday. The question arose about how those female medical attendants, who did not shake hands with men, will take care of male patients and created reaction among health organizations. Sexual discrimination related to religious beliefs has started becoming more common, said the organizations. On March 4, 50 medical attendants trained at Kayışdağı Asylum got their certificates in a ceremony. Most

Turkish Press Scanner

RADİKAL Forest villagers become millionaires by investing in non-wood products Residents of Koçlu, a small village in a forest in southern Turkey's Osmaniye province, have become “millionaires” by investing in numerous alternative non-wood products such as rosemary, thyme, sweet bay, insects and butterflies during the last few years, daily Radikal reported yesterday. Residents of Koçlu, located within the borders of Kadirli district, have earned a total income of YTL 2 million in one year through marketing non-wood products. And the village is now witnessing reverse migration from Kadirli and downtown Osmaniye. The lives of the villagers changed when the Adana Regional Directo

Turkish Press Scanner

New official language of mafia is Turkish The English media reviewed the social and administrative transformation of criminal gangs in their country citing as an example the drug baron Abdullah Baybaşin, who works like the CEO of a multinational corporation, daily Sabah reported yesterday. Criminal organizations are not led by English or Italian godfathers anymore but by second generation Turkish, Russian or Albanians, who are qualified as businessmen, like Baybaşin, the media reported. According to the reports Turks control drug issues, Albanians prostitution and Russians control laundering. The illicit money of the sector, which is about $18 billion a year, is now in comma

Turkish Press Scanner

Sabah One in three high school students sexually active One out of three high school students has had sexual intercourse, according to a survey of high school students in İzmir, daily Sabah reported yesterday. Boys and girls experience sexual intercourse for the first time at the ages of 16 and 17 respectively, according to the survey, which is the first of its kind among high school students in Turkey. Although boys said they have sexual intercourse to have “physical pleasure,” girls said they do because of “love.” Boys responded by saying they felt “pleasure and relaxation” after the first time they experienced sexual intercourse, and girls said they felt “shame, regret and disgust