On 6 June 2013 Thursday at 16:00, which is the 10th day of Gezi Park resistance, ÇapulTv broadcast via internet has completed its 7th day. ÇapulTv have been sharing knowledge and information regarding Gezi Park resistance for the thousands of audience in Turkey and abroad. ÇapulTv have eye witnessed the life form founded in Gezi […]
On 6 June 2013 Thursday at 16:00, which is the 10th day of Gezi Park resistance, ÇapulTv broadcast via internet has completed its 7th day.
ÇapulTv have been sharing knowledge and information regarding Gezi Park resistance for the thousands of audience in Turkey and abroad. ÇapulTv have eye witnessed the life form founded in Gezi Park, the thoughts and feelings of the people visiting and supporting the endeavors in Gezi Park along with the meetings of which nearly one million people have participated on Saturday and Sunday and the brutal police assault which had started early in the morning on June 11 and continued until early morning on ,June 12. But most important of all, ÇapulTv have witnessed the determined and strong hearted resistance aware of its righteousness.
Nearly 750.000 people have watched ÇapulTv during the 7-day-period and aside from a negligible number of criticizing comments, everybody has sent their congratulations, supports and solidarity messages.
ÇapulTv have planned to broadcast live on air from 16:00 PM to 02:00 AM every day They were going to share the creative productions of the Gezi Park resistance, videos, music clips during the remaining timeline. Their plan has partly been realized because from the first day on ÇapulTv has started to broadcast, new developments, surprises and assaults have happened. It would be unfair to expect ÇapulTv which is also a part of the resistance to stick with the first plan. As a matter of fact, on June 11 ÇapulTv have aired live for 24 hours apart from a 2-hours-long period when the Gezi Cafe’s place where ÇapulTv’s studio is set has been heavily air gassed. During those hours ÇapulTv have moved out of the studio and tried to air from outside.
ÇapulTv has realised cooperative broadcast with several other channels as well. On June 11, our colleague from TV10 has visited us in our studio and ÇapulTv have co-aired with TV10 which broadcasts via satellite. IMV Television, HayatTV and HalkTV have also co-aired with us, carrying our broadcast to their own platforms. In the evening of June 11, Nor Radyo has also cooperated with us. HTML codes have been distributed to web site owners who requested to place ÇapulTV in their web pages. Another example of solidarity has took place in Eskişehir where the Gezi Park protestors in Eskişehir have altogether watched ÇapulTv broadcast reflected on a curtain.
ÇapulTv’s live broadcast have become news itself by being the media of Gezi Park resistance. Yet ÇapulTv is not the only communication channel. Gezi Radyo that broadcasts on FM 101.9 frequency and via internet, Videoccupy trying to build up the visual memory of the Gezi Park resistance that is also working on a documentary, Gezi Parki TV that uploads rough footage (unedited video) form Gezi Park twice a day, Gezi Postasi which is the daily newspaper of Gezi Park and Revolt Istanbul mainly based on live footage sharing have altogether been working very hard in solidarity to inform everyone about the daily life in Gezi Park and facts regarding the resistance. In addition to these individuals from Istanbul, Ankara and other cities have started to diffuse their own amateur broadcast via internet from the field of demonstrations.
Although it is of utmost importance to reveal the truth about the daily life in Gezi Park and continuing resistance all around Turkey, the irrelevant attitude of mainstream media which millions of people follow and watch to get informed have made our responsible broadcasting indispensable.
The media foundations in Turkey which can be defined as ruling media have been centered in the middle of capitalist accumulation. Therefore the information produced and diffused by the mainstream media is subject to market rules and regulations and consequently against labor. The information produced and diffused by mainstream media can be characterized irrelevant to social welfare and and their broadcasting ethics are far from being equally distanced to variant groups in the society. However, particularly in the last few years the situation became more grave and the responsible is AKP (Justice and Development Party) government (power) who uses the public sources as an instrument of threat and blackmail against the mainstream media.
There were various incident s throughout the AKP power when the media have stayed in silence. Before the Gezi Park resistance have started, TEKEL resistance which has started in December 2009 and lasted until the beginning of 2010, mainstream media have staged a blind attitude towards them until the resisting workers are thrown into icy water as a result of their structural bias.
Trying to define the reasons of the problematic situation the mainstream media is in, structural bias and the fact that the content of mainstream media is pro-ruling class became inadequate when we have witnessed the protesting rallies against Tayyip Erdoğan in Hopa in June 2011 and Metin Lokumcu’s murder by the police were hidden from the public audience for hours.
The mass murder (massacre) of Roboski happened early in the morning yet the mainstream media preferred to keep its silence and after 12 hours the Minister of Internal Affairs had to make an official statement as a result of pressure coming from the social media.
Media remained blind to Gezi Park resistance; the mainstream media’s attitude was incredible. The Gezi resistance which began on May 28 and gained acceleration and mass movement character on May 31 was denied by the mainstream media for five whole days.
During the Gezi Park resistance when demonstrations took place in and nearby Taksim along with the other parts of the city, the fact that one of the leading news channels of Turkey showed a documentary on penguins which we believe will be a prominent concept regarding the communications studies literature.
Following the coup d’etat back in 2002 in Venezuela when the people went out to the streets and took Chavez back to presidency, pro coup d’etat Venezuelan commercial media have shown Tom and Jerry cartoons for 48 hours. This incident may very well be compared to our mainstream media’s attitude yet it was coup d’etat conditions back in Venezuela whereas democracy is claimed to prevail in Turkey.
The fact that Media moguls has become one of the most strategic actors among the capitalists through their investments not only in media, but also in other sectors, the complicated relationship they developed with the ruling classes in the country and the political power and the fact that AKP government’s “mastership” in manipulating this complicated relationship all along, eventually led the mainstream media not being capable of fulfilling its basic functions, not to mention the discussions on content being one sided politically. This causes mainstream media to rapidly lose its legitimacy. This loss causes every activity to produce its own information and try to share. At this point, new technologies of communication and the networks formed by these are of utmost importance.
It is evident that the new and forthcoming communications technology necessitates know-how and millions of people who are deprived of access to such technology and know-how are bound to follow and watch the mainstream media. At this point, opposing broadcast foundations, newspapers and local media which are indeed dependent on the mainstream media and its platforms interfere. Another way is to produce first hand information through independent platforms so both the opposing media and the local media may find the opportunity to get into access with new sources. All of the above mentioned institutes rationale of ÇapulTv’s leading presence.
ÇapulTv has its roots in Tekel resistance when they have managed to carry on a live broadcast for nealy 10 days. The main motivation was to provide a platform for people to express their ideas and feelings so the audience would benefit from the lived experience. From the first day on, both well known and ordinary people could find the opportunity to reach out to other people by telling them what they have witnessed and lived through.
During the days ÇapulTv started to air Gezi Park, the mainstream media finally started to diffuse news regarding Gezi Park. However, their coverage was highly tendentious and pro AKP power. Yet before the editorial process, censorship and forced auto censorship, media workers’ personal observations and thoughts regarding the resistance dispersed all around Turkey were preciously shared via our broadcast. Well known and prominent journalists and reporters such as Ahmet Hakan, Mehmet Yılmaz and İsmail Saymaz have visited us in our studio and we have aired together. All agreed on the hopeful potential of Gezi Park resistance and life as people have managed to come together leaving all discriminations aside.
Süleyman Çelebi, Musa Çam and İlhan Cihaner who are PMs were on air on different days. Labor union officers, labor union activists and members have tried to carry the voice of organised labor to our broadcasts. Designer Barbaros Şansal, caricaturist Erdil Yaşaroğlu, musician Halil Sezai, director Metin Yeğin have told us why they call themselves as chapullers.
Mass organizations, chambers representatives, medical doctors, engineers, lawyers have shared their observations and experiences throughout the resistance in guidance with their professional knowledge. Students from elementary school, high school and university were our welcomed guests as well.
There were guests from abroad. the representatives from the Occupy demonstrations, reporters from the international media and foreign residents in Turkey have participated in our broadcast. Not just from 7-year-old to 70-year-old, but from 5-year-old to 85-year-old women, children, teenagers have spoken about the life in Gezi Park being the witness and the object of the resistance.
As they speak, ÇapulTV shared the information and the people watched us so the witnesses have multiplied.
The thousands of tweets and facebook messages received during our airings prove that we are not alone at all.
Resistance prevails, so the resistance’s media as well!
Çeviri: Işık Kıribrahim
Sendika.Org