Once a journalist, always a journalist
Welcome to my blog!
My name is Sevgi Akarcesme. I was a journalist until my newspaper, Today's Zaman, was brutally taken away from increasingly oppressive government of Turkey. I had switched to a career in journalism in 2012 after quitting my secure job in bureaucracy. It was a short yet extremely intense period under heavy pressure. Since then, I have tried my best to pursue reporting often with very limited resources.
I was forced to leave 'home', Istanbul, in March 2016. After the initial shock, for about a year, with a tiny group of exiled colleagues in different parts of the world we worked hard to report tragedies going on in Turkey to the outside world in the absence of free media inside the country.
After a while, I had to move on to start a new life. Online reporting from home was not a sustainable route. It was almost funny to listen pro-government media claiming that people like me had more than enough resources to report in English. All I had was a tiny MacBookAir and a wireless connection in a small studio in Brussels.
Journalism has been tougher even for those working in established media outlets. It has become impossible for me and my colleagues who were all trying to survive in exile. Many of them are still jailed in Turkey, some are even in solitary confinement. Others are either in exile or unemployed under severe demonization of the regime. A big chunk of these journalists are accused of terrorism due to their real and/or perceived links to the Gulen movement. Many are rightfully scared of being forgotten and left to their own devices. The stigma is too terrible to be true! I call Turkey a society of ideological tribes. Hence, I can understand lack of solidarity with people from our media group, but when I come across comments from Westerners who collectively judge all from the same media group I get even more appalled. In their ideological mindset, it does not matter when you started journalism, what work you had done. I bet many of them did not even read a single reporting or commentary by the names they blame for anything under the sky. After all, if you worked in a specific media group that was not in line with their beliefs, you deserve to be labelled. Ironically, Zaman and Today's Zaman were the most diverse media outlets you could find in Turkey in terms of columnists. It was unimaginable for anyone who is for instance with headscarf to work in Turkey's then mainstream media, but at Zaman media group people from 'outside' its tribe could work in peace.
The editorial choices and mistakes of Zaman is set aside (such as reporting certain indictments without careful editorial check and employing a similar language with the state) but even those cannot be used as eternal tools to bash anyone who worked in the media group at different times and circumstances. Especially purge, collective punishment and guilt by association are unacceptable under any condition, but they have become the new normal in Turkey long time ago...
I have not seen any reporter or columnist who is blamed for the horrendous headlines of Hurriyet over several decades, but if you happen to work at Zaman, you do not even deserve to be called journalists! Remember exiled Turkish columnist Can Dundar's tweet in which he did not even bother to 'grant' the jailed Zaman reporters the label journalists. I find it weird, to say the least, how he could be nominated for Nobel Peace Prize despite such discriminatory record. In that sense, the West should also question its assumptions about Turkey. Having a seemingly modern lifestyle does not turn one into a democrat as being pious does not make one illiberal.
That strong tribalism indeed has been the root cause of lack if individualism and institutionalization in Turkey...In Turkey's media landscape, no media group could claim to be exempt from the maladies of society.
Despite everything, I seized every opportunity to express myself and report on Turkey. Only in English though. Writing in Turkish is no different than playing drums in a place full of deaf people. As a result, I often only express myself in English, particularly on Twitter. I am much less vocal compared to few years ago. One reason is that I still struggle to establish a new life in the United States as an immigrant, but more importantly, people almost got used to the horrible stories coming out of Turkey especially since the massive purge that started after July 15, 2016. Most importantly, I was and still am disillusioned and disappointed with the intelligentsia of my home country. Indeed, I hardly consider Istanbul home for a long time...
I'm afraid writing has less and less impact in the age of rising dictators and divisions in many societies around the world. People are willing to read and listen only those who confirm their pre-existing assumptions. Yet, words still do matter and writing is still my passion. This is why I decided to start this blog to express myself whenever I feel like doing so. To be realistic, journalism could be a hobby for me from now on as I am still trying to figure out an alternative track. In the meantime, I am able to enjoy freedom of expression and should make the best use of it.
Apparently it is true that once you are a journalist, always a journalist!
My name is Sevgi Akarcesme. I was a journalist until my newspaper, Today's Zaman, was brutally taken away from increasingly oppressive government of Turkey. I had switched to a career in journalism in 2012 after quitting my secure job in bureaucracy. It was a short yet extremely intense period under heavy pressure. Since then, I have tried my best to pursue reporting often with very limited resources.
I was forced to leave 'home', Istanbul, in March 2016. After the initial shock, for about a year, with a tiny group of exiled colleagues in different parts of the world we worked hard to report tragedies going on in Turkey to the outside world in the absence of free media inside the country.
After a while, I had to move on to start a new life. Online reporting from home was not a sustainable route. It was almost funny to listen pro-government media claiming that people like me had more than enough resources to report in English. All I had was a tiny MacBookAir and a wireless connection in a small studio in Brussels.
Journalism has been tougher even for those working in established media outlets. It has become impossible for me and my colleagues who were all trying to survive in exile. Many of them are still jailed in Turkey, some are even in solitary confinement. Others are either in exile or unemployed under severe demonization of the regime. A big chunk of these journalists are accused of terrorism due to their real and/or perceived links to the Gulen movement. Many are rightfully scared of being forgotten and left to their own devices. The stigma is too terrible to be true! I call Turkey a society of ideological tribes. Hence, I can understand lack of solidarity with people from our media group, but when I come across comments from Westerners who collectively judge all from the same media group I get even more appalled. In their ideological mindset, it does not matter when you started journalism, what work you had done. I bet many of them did not even read a single reporting or commentary by the names they blame for anything under the sky. After all, if you worked in a specific media group that was not in line with their beliefs, you deserve to be labelled. Ironically, Zaman and Today's Zaman were the most diverse media outlets you could find in Turkey in terms of columnists. It was unimaginable for anyone who is for instance with headscarf to work in Turkey's then mainstream media, but at Zaman media group people from 'outside' its tribe could work in peace.
The editorial choices and mistakes of Zaman is set aside (such as reporting certain indictments without careful editorial check and employing a similar language with the state) but even those cannot be used as eternal tools to bash anyone who worked in the media group at different times and circumstances. Especially purge, collective punishment and guilt by association are unacceptable under any condition, but they have become the new normal in Turkey long time ago...
I have not seen any reporter or columnist who is blamed for the horrendous headlines of Hurriyet over several decades, but if you happen to work at Zaman, you do not even deserve to be called journalists! Remember exiled Turkish columnist Can Dundar's tweet in which he did not even bother to 'grant' the jailed Zaman reporters the label journalists. I find it weird, to say the least, how he could be nominated for Nobel Peace Prize despite such discriminatory record. In that sense, the West should also question its assumptions about Turkey. Having a seemingly modern lifestyle does not turn one into a democrat as being pious does not make one illiberal.
That strong tribalism indeed has been the root cause of lack if individualism and institutionalization in Turkey...In Turkey's media landscape, no media group could claim to be exempt from the maladies of society.
Despite everything, I seized every opportunity to express myself and report on Turkey. Only in English though. Writing in Turkish is no different than playing drums in a place full of deaf people. As a result, I often only express myself in English, particularly on Twitter. I am much less vocal compared to few years ago. One reason is that I still struggle to establish a new life in the United States as an immigrant, but more importantly, people almost got used to the horrible stories coming out of Turkey especially since the massive purge that started after July 15, 2016. Most importantly, I was and still am disillusioned and disappointed with the intelligentsia of my home country. Indeed, I hardly consider Istanbul home for a long time...
I'm afraid writing has less and less impact in the age of rising dictators and divisions in many societies around the world. People are willing to read and listen only those who confirm their pre-existing assumptions. Yet, words still do matter and writing is still my passion. This is why I decided to start this blog to express myself whenever I feel like doing so. To be realistic, journalism could be a hobby for me from now on as I am still trying to figure out an alternative track. In the meantime, I am able to enjoy freedom of expression and should make the best use of it.
Apparently it is true that once you are a journalist, always a journalist!
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