Yeni Şafak

Yeni Şafak ("New Dawn") is a conservative Turkish daily newspaper. The newspaper is known for its hardline support of president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the AK Parti and has a very close relationship with the Turkish government.[2][3][4] It, together with other media organizations in Turkey, has been accused of using hate speech to target minorities and opposition groups.[5][6][7]

Yeni Şafak
TypeDaily newspaper
FormatBerliner
Owner(s)Albayrak Holding
Editor-in-chiefİbrahim Karagül
Founded1994
Political alignmentIslamist, Conservative
LanguageTurkish
HeadquartersYeni Doğan Mah. Kızılay Sok. No: 39 Bayrampaşa
Cityİstanbul
CountryTurkey
Circulation112.102 (November 2014)[1]
Websitewww.yenisafak.com

History

Yeni Şafak's founding editor was Mehmet Ocaktan. In the beginning, Yeni Şafak was known for harboring both liberal and Islamist columnists. Yeni Şafak was acquired by Albayrak Holding in 1997, which had close ties with then mayor of Istanbul, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. After İbrahim Karagül became the editor-in-chief of Yeni Şafak, the newspaper became a hardline supporter of then prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.[2] More Islamist columnists were employed, while liberals like Kürşat Bumin were fired from the newspaper because of their critical views of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the AK Parti.[8]

Controversies

Fabricated Noam Chomsky interview

On August 26, Noam Chomsky accused the pro-government Yeni Şafak newspaper of fabricating parts of an interview that was done with him via email, including inventing questions and answers and altering criticism of Erdoğan's approach to Egypt and Syria into an assertion that Turkey "stood with the oppressed people in Syria and Egypt".[9] The administration of Yeni Şafak denied the accusation and promised to release the original English content of the emails. However, the released original was full of grammatical mistakes. Later it was found out that Yeni Şafak used Google Translate to translate fabricated Turkish content into English, and presented the translation as the original interview.[10] After the grammatical errors, particularly "milk port", became a sensation on social media, Yeni Şafak finally admitted some parts were fabricated and removed the entire interview from its web site.[11][12]

Disinformation during Gezi Protests

Yeni Şafak newspaper was a primary source of disinformation during 2013–14 protests in Turkey. According to a report published by Hrant Dink Foundation, Yeni Şafak was the primary newspaper generating hate speech against Gezi protesters.[7]

PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that they would release security camera footage to prove this had occurred. However, the imam of Dolmabahçe Mosque denied the paper's allegations and no footage was released to the public.[13] Later, the imam (who is a state employee of the mosque) was transferred to a different city.[14]

The paper also claimed a headscarved woman was attacked by a gang of shirtless protesters near Dolmabahce Mosque at a tram station on June 1, 2013. On February 14, 2014, several months after the protests had ended, security camera footage showed that there had been no attack on a woman wearing a headscarf by protesters on that date. The woman and Prime Minister Erdoğan had claimed in press conferences and political rallies that protesters had attacked her and her baby.[15][16]

On June 10, Yeni Şafak claimed that a theatrical play called "Mi Minor," allegedly supported by an agency in the United Kingdom, had held rehearsals for a "revolution" in Turkey for months.[17]

On July 14 Yeni Şafak published an article, titled "The Gezi Protestors' Horrible Plan for Istanbul," on their website that claimed that Gezi protesters were conspiring to undermine the government by wasting water from the reservoirs supplying Istanbul.[18] After the article became the object of nationwide mockery, Yeni Şafak removed it from their website.

Other disinformation incidents

On January 15, 2016, Yeni Şafak published a video purportedly showing live audience members of the prime-time Beyaz Show talk show chanting slogans in support of outlawed Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan. British investigative news agency D8 News published a forensic analysis demonstrating that the audio track was modified before publication, adding voices sampled from an unrelated protest.[19] The article also presented evidence that Yeni Şafak editors likely attempted to cover up their claims rather than issuing a formal retraction. The falsification incident was subsequently corroborated and covered by other news outlets in Turkey.[20]

Anti-Semitism

On July 11, 2014, Yeni Şafak columnist İbrahim Sancak resorted to hate speech against Jews.[21]

On July 11, 2014, Yeni Şafak columnist Yusuf Kaplan resorted to hate speech against Jews.[22]

On July 23 and 30 2014, Yeni Şafak columnist İbrahim Tenekeci resorted to hate speech against Jews and identified them as "eternal pain of humanity".[23][24]

Anti-LGBT

On June 6, 2012, Yeni Şafak columnist A. Fuat Erdoğan identified homosexuality as perversion.[25]

On May 13, 2013, Yeni Şafak columnist Yusuf Kaplan identified sexual identities other than heterosexuality as perversion.[26]

Anti-Abortion

On June 6, 2012, Yeni Şafak columnist A. Fuat Erdoğan resorted to hate speech against pro-abortion women.[25]

Columnists
  • Melih Bayram Dede
  • Ali Bayramoğlu
  • Yusuf Ziya Cömert
  • Ali Murat Güven
  • İbrahim Karagül
  • Tamer Korkmaz
  • Ömer Lekesiz
  • Abdullah Muradoğlu
  • Osman Tanburacı
  • Salih Tuna
  • Mehmet Şeker (yazar, 1961)
gollark: That only applies to the osmarks.net fortunes thing.
gollark: I suspect LyricLy uses a random number generator for some percentage of opinion generation.
gollark: Where you guessed *all* of them wrong (probability of about ⅓ if you picked randomly, and you claimed they were all RIGHT)?
gollark: Remember the code guessing incident?
gollark: Scripts in a browser are banned from accessing other origins which don't explicitly opt in to such, for security (as cookies are thingied, and websites may filter by IP).

References
  1. "Tiraj - MedyaTava - Yazmadıysa Doğru Değildir". 2 February 2016. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
  2. "Is Davutoglu facing a 'mission impossible'?". Al Monitor. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
  3. Usluata, Ayseli; Rosenbaum, John (2005). Shaping the future of communication research in Europe. İstanbul: Yeditepe University Pub. p. 140. ISBN 978-9753070126.
  4. Tziarras, Zenonas (April 2015). "State-Media Relations in Turkey: Daily Sabah and Yeni Şafak as a Tactical Arm of the AKP's Foreign Policy". Asian Politics & Policy. 7 (2): 323–327. doi:10.1111/aspp.12187.
  5. "Study reveals increasing hate speech in Turkish press". Al Monitor. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  6. "Hate speech on the rise in Turkish media". BBC. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  7. "Nefret Söylemi Raporu: Yeni Şafak 'Gezi'den Düşman Yaratmada Birinci". Hrant Dink Foundation. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  8. "AK Parti and the liberals". Today's Zaman. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
  9. "Chomsky accuses Turkish daily of fabricating parts of interview - LOCAL". Retrieved 3 February 2016.
  10. "Turkish Newspaper's Fake Chomsky Interview Lost In Translation". The Wall Street Journal.
  11. "Turkish daily admits to making up parts of Chomsky interview, releases alleged text - LOCAL". Retrieved 3 February 2016.
  12. "Turkish daily apologizes for fabricated Chomsky interview - LOCAL". Retrieved 3 February 2016.
  13. "PM Erdoğan repeats previously denied reports of protesters entering mosque with shoes on". Hürriyet Daily News. 9 June 2013. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
  14. Yasemin Çongar (2013-09-23). "Turkish Muezzin Who Couldn't Lie Is Exiled". Al-Monitor. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
  15. "Released footage shows no physical attack on headscarf-wearing woman during Gezi protests". Turkish Weekly. 14 February 2014.
  16. "Video casts doubt over alleged attack on headscarved woman". The Daily Star. 14 February 2014.
  17. "Turkish actor threatened over his Gezi Park support - LOCAL". Retrieved 3 February 2016.
  18. "Pro-gov't media: Gezi protesters conspiring to use up İstanbul's water". TodaysZaman. 16 July 2014. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
  19. "Yeni Şafak Coverup Following Doctored Beyaz Show Video: A Technical Analysis". D8 News. 16 January 2016. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  20. "Montaj yapıp "Beyaz Show'da Öcalan sloganı!" başlığı yayınladılar" [Falsified and broadcast with the headline "Öcalan slogans on Beyaz Show!"] (in Turkish). D8 News. 16 January 2016. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  21. "Yeni çağın ilk büyük imtihanı". nefretsoylemi.org.
  22. "Frankenstein ruhlu adamlar, Tanrı'yı kıyamete zorluyorlar". nefretsoylemi.org. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  23. "Bir iman meselesi". nefretsoylemi.org. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  24. "İnsanlar ve Yahudiler". nefretsoylemi.org. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  25. "Kürtah yasağı özgürlük kısıtlaması mıdır?". nefretsoylemi.org. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  26. "Üçüncü cinsel Devrim: Geliyorum diyen felaket". nefretsoylemi.org.
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