Transparency International Turkey organized its 6th media workshop on “2015 General Elections and Media” as part of Transparency in Media Projects supported by the General Consulate of Sweden and British Embassy.
Aiming to bring local, mainstream, alternative media members together and provide a framework as well as an interactive discussion platform to increase literacy on the issues related to election period violations and ethical reporting and media coverage in election period, the workshop took place on Thursday, 2015, 7 May at the Taksim Point Hotel with the participation of 40 people.
The morning session of the workshop was devoted to Election Period Violations and Media. Investigative journalist Arzu Yıldız highlighted recent election period violations by giving examples from the media follow-up activities she has been carrying out during election period. Second speaker Murat Timur, attorney-at-law and President of the Van Bar Association shared their experiences during their long-term observations and trackings on election period violations as Var Bar Association. Third speaker, Sercan Çelebi (Founding Chairman of the platform Oy ve Otesi aiming to organize volunteers to monitor elections in Turkey) share their experiences on their platform’s activities such as; organizing workshops to train volunteer observers, creating database to track election results to compare with official records. He also shared their experiences during the institutionalizing of their organization. After his speech, an interactive discussion session has started and participants addressed their questions to the speakers. The level of participation was considerably high due to the quality and the productivity of the discussion.
The afternoon session of the workshop was devoted to Ethical Reporting on Election Period. Moderator of the session, Dr. Yasemin İnceoğlu (Professor at the Communication Faculty, Galatasaray University) delivered a keynote speech on the significance of ethical reporting during the election period. After her speech, the session has started with the presentation of the Pledge for Ethical Reporting on Election Period prepared by Transparency International Turkey. Following the presentation, Sibel Güneş, (Secretary-General of the Journalists’ Association of Turkey) made a speech on journalists’ responsibilities for the society during the election period, problems related to accessibility to the news, restricting role of accreditation practices on reporting and Journalists’ Association of Turkey’s efforts for press freedom. Following Sibel Güneş’s speech, Prof. Dr. Yasemin İnceoğlu made comparative interpretation on ethical reporting practices in Turkey and abroad.
