The ruling party is planning to reinstate the Press Advertisement Institution’s (BİK) authority to impose ad bans on press outlets despite a Constitutional Court ruling annulling similar provisions, an opposition deputy said.
“Since BİK was attached to the Presidency’s Directorate of Communications, a bad and arbitrary management has dominated the institution,” said Utku Çakırözer of the Republican People’s Party (CHP).
The agency, which was founded in 1961 to ensure the fair distribution of public ads and support independent newspapers, has become an instrument to punish media outlets, he argued.
Seventy-six percent of the ad-cutting penalties in 2019 and 50 percent in the following year were imposed on only three newspapers, the secular pro-opposition Cumhuriyet, and left-wing papers BirGün and Evrensel.
Evrensel newspaper hasn’t received public ads for over 900 days
9 March 2022
Five newspapers got 88 percent of ad penalties by Press Advertising Agency
8 February 2021
The Constitutional Court in October concluded that the ad-cutting practices were arbitrary and disproportionate, and it annulled the agency’s authority.
“But now you are asking us again for the authority to issue penalties,” Çakırözer said, addressing the government. “If you attempt to rain arbitrary penalties on newspapers again through militant bureaucrats and pro-government professional organizations that receive this authority, it is against the Constitution.”
CONTEMPORARY JOURNALISTS’ ASSOCIATION
‘Media Authorities Have Become Publicly Financed Executioners of the Press’
1 June 2020
Outlets resort to clickbaiting to get ads
Arguing that internet news sites are also directed toward clickbait journalism in order to receive official advertisements, Çakırözer said, “Journalism and public benefit have been forgotten.”
The right of newspapers to receive advertisements from the institution was expanded to internet media in 2024. However, the conditions for receiving advertisements require reaching numbers of personnel and clicks that are very difficult for small outlets to meet. This directs outlets to hire more people and produce high-click news just to receive advertisements.
Struggles of local press
Çakırözer claimed that BİK resources were directed to institutional managers and unaudited expenditures instead of the Anatolian press and journalists working for low wages:
“There is a black box in front of us that turns limited resources, which should go to our Anatolian press and journalists who have to work for wages below the hunger limit, into executive bonuses for themselves, squanders them in works contrary to public procurement legislation, and these unaccounted expenditures are not audited in any way.”
Local journalism: Pursuing truth under pressure
7 February 2025
(HA/VK)
Source: BIANET
