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Mon, 31 Jul 2006
If you question the situation of media, you may lose your access to it.
Sevgul Uludag wrote an article on July, 5th 2006 and this week-end (~July 29th) she distributed the following note:
"With this article, which was not published by Fileleftheros, I was told to `consider myself fired from the newspaper and not to send any more articles`. The efforts of the Cyprus Journalists’ Union to have a face-to-face meeting with Fileleftheros about the issue also failed. Fileleleftheros also refused to publish the article, even after the paragraph about Michalides was offered to be removed from the article."
The gist of the matter is that in Cyprus media is heavily controlled by political party affiliations and some (let's say) "traditional" alliances. Alternative magazines, news-sources flourish from time to time (for example see Hamamboculeri.Org that I am involved in) but they are generally marginal in their audience and rely on the dedication of few individuals. Even newspapers such as Afrika/Avrupa that have a very turbulent history of bombings, court-cases, heavy governmental and non-governmental pressure can not really be treated as bastions of freedom of expression. There are cases of columnists being forced away, news-pieces/announcements censored for no good reason except that they challanged the pre-defined notions of those "in power" in the paper. This sad truth that I just outlined for the Turkish Cypriot community unfortunately extends to the Greek Cypriot media, i.e. the whole Cypriot population in general. It is kind of ironic that the article is about the mainstream media!
Full text of Sevgul's article follows.
Yeraltı Notları, 29 Temmuz 2006
Sevgül Uludağ
Fired because of the following article... *** The big question for the mainstream Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot media:
`Reunification` or `Division`? (*)
Sevgul Uludag
More and more, distance is put among the two main communities of the island. In the mainstream media, no one is talking of what is common but everyone is writing about what divides the communities. Every opportunity is used to attack and humiliate each other, openly or covertly… This happens on both sides of the island and there are very few voices in the media, promoting reunification of the communities…
One of the main problems concerning `reunification` is how people understand the concept. For the mainstream media of Greek Cypriots, `reunification` means the reunification of the land – this understanding, does not take into consideration the reunification of the people, of the communities, of the human beings but focuses all its attention on `the land`. Reunification of the land is in fact a very big issue and should be one of the aims but what is more important is how we shall unite our communities, how we shall find creative ways of bringing their hearts together, how we shall take up what unites them, rather than what divides them… How we shall strategize our focus on people, rather than basing our focus on official lines of either side. The main problem concerning `reunification` of the island for the mainstream Turkish Cypriot media is that it is subconsciously based on `two separate entities coming together`, not seeing that this is a remnant of `Taksim` policies… The focus is on `Bizonality` and with this, the `legitimization` of `the results of 1974`… No one is contesting that any future cooperation of our communities should be based on multiculturalism, rather than on the `hegemony` of the Greek Cypriot community in all fields… But how `bizonality` is perceived is a big problem because deep down, the ideology of `Taksim` is still there and has not been wiped out from the subconscious thinking of `duality` and `separatism` from the minds of some mainstream Turkish Cypriot journalists.
I read some articles of Aristos Michalidis (in Fileleftheros newspaper), who takes up some issues with sarcasm about Turkish Cypriots… When you are too much attached to something, it is inevitable to hurt the feelings of `others`, whoever they might be… Michalidis talks of a Turkish Cypriot being given a fine because of a traffic offense. But his tone about Turkish Cypriots sounds so bad that I feel ashamed of writing in the same newspaper because of that particular article of his… Instead of suggesting creative ways of solving such problems, Michalidis is taking a `side` and humiliating, in his own way, `the other community`. I read this in between the lines and feel sad…
The same thing had happened to my husband some months ago – even though he did not park in a `no parking zone` he had got a ticket that was written in Greek. He tried to find out what it said and wrote a letter to the Nicosia Municipality, asking them to consider the matter of including the official language of the Republic of Cyprus, that is Turkish or at least English on the tickets… If 3 million tourists visit Cyprus, the least that can be done is a warning in English that if you don’t pay your fines, this or that would happen. After all, do we expect all these tourists who hire cars and roam Cyprus, to read and write Greek?!… And on the other hand, if you make a whole community `invisible` by refusing the acknowledgment that Turkish is an official language according to the constitution, what else can be said?
The Nicosia Municipality called my husband and he went to visit them and spoke of what happened and what could be done… There was a `dialogue` rather than confrontation… He managed to find understanding there and put forward his views about how things should work… In the end, he was happy that his concern was taken into consideration and in this process he also created new friends among the workers of the Nicosia Municipality…
I also feel very sad when I read big generalizations about the Greek Cypriots in the mainstream Turkish Cypriot media. Many commentators in the Turkish Cypriot media are blaming `The Greek Cypriots` for not wanting a solution, for not wanting to share the island with Turkish Cypriots etc. Many `news` items on BRT or in the mainstream Turkish Cypriot media begins with the words `Again, the Greek Cypriots have proven that they do not want a solution!` When you do this five times a day, then how can you hope for reunification of the people? In the Turkish Cypriot mainstream media, the `in` thing is to swear as much as possible at AKEL and Papadopulos… Sure, one can criticize both AKEL and Papadopulos but if this looks like `your life’s aim` then, there must be a serious problem! Who dares to write what unites us rather than what divides us? Who dares to write what is not written in the mainstream media? Of course there are those who do write and show a different way but these are not `popular` subjects, right?
I read many articles in SIMERINI about how `the Turkish Cypriots` are enjoying both sides of the island, getting the benefits from both and these articles are written in such a way to say to the Greek Cypriot readers, `Look at them! Look! They are stealing your property! They are using your health services and not paying a penny!` alienating `the Turkish Cypriots` from the hearts and minds of Greek Cypriots. Not mentioning that it was not the personal voluntary choice of many Turkish Cypriots to leave their homes and go to the northern part and become displaced and live in the homes they found there… Not mentioning the course of `history`, of the conflicts, of the events and the ideologies behind those events that led to the division of the island and the pain, the suffering, the losses… Only seeing the loss of the Greek Cypriot community and pushing the Turkish Cypriot community further and further away from the hearts and minds of them… Breeding conflict instead of understanding, playing on the surface, rather than going down under the tip of `the iceberg` to see what a dirty game this is and how the bleeding wounds of both communities are exactly the same and how all sides are losing while on the surface it might look as though one or the other is `winning`… It’s as though the editorial board of SIMERINI and VOLKAN are one and the same – the mentality is so much alike, based on a culture of conflict…
More and more, speaking about what unites Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots becomes difficult because the atmosphere on both sides of the Green Line is poisoned. There is no favorable atmosphere in the mainstream media of either side… The shots have been called and like the goats meeting on a bridge, horns have been locked… It is not a game of understanding, the media is playing but of confronting, of `who will win` and `who will loose`… And in this game, of course, our humanity is on the loosing side…
We are not looking for a lesson in law and order, we are not searching for official stands… What we are looking for in the media on either side is the focus to be on understanding, empathy and a way forward where all communities of the island would feel part of…
Tricky isn’t it? Of course it is because you would be swimming against the tide… Perhaps the basic problem of our mainstream media on either side is that they are too much attached to the `official agenda` of the ruling political parties and choose that way instead of taking the difficult path of questioning the rhetoric and the ideology behind that rhetoric in circulation…
5.7.2006
(*) With this article, which was not published by Fileleftheros, I was told to `consider myself fired from the newspaper and not to send any more articles`. The efforts of the Cyprus Journalists’ Union to have a face-to-face meeting with Fileleftheros about the issue also failed. Fileleleftheros also refused to publish the article, even after the paragraph about Michalides was offered to be removed from the article.
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