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ARMENIANS SAID TARGETED MOST BY TURKISH MEDIA
Today's Zaman
Dec 6 2012
Turkey
6 December 2012 , Istanbul: Armenians abroad and Turkey's Armenian
community were the most targeted communities in articles or news
items that are considered to be hate-speech between May and August
2012, according to a recent report from the Hrant Dink Foundation,
released on Thursday.
The Hrant Dink Foundation regularly monitors the media for stories
that target religious and ethnic minorities, or other disadvantaged
groups such as the disabled or non-heterosexual individuals. Between
August and May this year, there were 101 op-ed columns and news
articles identified by the foundation's experts as targeting national,
ethnic and religious groups. There were 35 items targeting women and
individuals with sexual orientations that differ from the general
population.
The report found that the number of groups targeted went down to
15 communities from 17 in the first two reports. The majority of
the content that contains hate speech was from the national press,
the report found. Some 82 per cent of items classified as containing
hate speech, was found in national media. The remaining 18 per cent
came from local newspapers. Also, the report found that the majority
of hate speech is disseminated in the work of columnists.
in the period between May-August, the groups that were targeted most
often were, respectively, Armenians, Christians, Jews and Greeks,
the report said. It noted, "Out of this group, the aspect that stood
out the most in terms of hate speech towards Armenians, which we
may identify as a fixed category, was their association with the
[terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party] PKK within the context of the
recently intensifying conflict. This discourse, produced through
an understanding that "Muslim Kurds are harmless and the PKK is an
Armenian movement," was also seen to be reproduced at times with
content targeting Christians and Jews. However, the most dominant
assertion was that of Armenians supporting the PKK, looking for
opportunities to harm Turkey, the "eternal enemy," and being a risk
factor."
The report also found that the number of stories and columns using
hate speech against Kurds is increasing. "This increase was observed
to coincide with the months of July and August, when armed conflict
intensified, and the Kurdish people were noted as having been charged
within the context of the clashes with the PKK. In this kind of
content, the issue was reduced to "Kurdish terror," either implying
that "patience was running thin" or creating enmity by attributing
the issue to the Kurdish people."
in addition to religious or ethnic minorities, the report found 35
items that employed hate speech directed at the Lesbian, Bisexual,
Gay and Transgender (LBGT) community. In addition, the report says the
Turkish press in its representations of transvestites and transsexuals
associates these individuals with "crime" and "social unrest."
The report said newspapers that gave the most space to hate speech
in the May-August period, not unlike in previous periods, were those
with a nationalist-conservative editorial line, with Milli Gazete,
Yeni Akit, Ortadogu, Yenicag and Yeni Mesaj newspapers once again being
the publications with the most frequent occurrences of hate speech.
The Hrant Dink Foundation has been monitoring the media for hate
speech since 2009. It says its main purpose is to combat racism,
discrimination and intolerance in Turkey. The foundation monitored
approximately 1,000 local newspapers and all national newspapers
through the Media Monitoring Centre using various key strings (such as
collaborator, Turcophobe, separatist etc.). In addition to the keyword
alerts, 16 newspapers, chosen in line with their circulation volume,
are read and manually monitored as part of the foundation's hate-speech
watch efforts. The news is evaluated on the basis of four categories
of hate speech. The first category of "Exaggeration/attribution
/distortion" involves negative stereotyping and distortion. The second
category of "Blasphemy / insult / degradation," includes the direct use
of denigrating or obscene words towards the targeted group. The third
category, "Enmity/war discourse," is any item that contains hostility
and war-mongering expressions about a community. The fourth category,
with the difficult name of "Use of inherent identity as an element
of hate or humiliation / symbolization," contains discourses where
the attributes of a person acquired from birth are used to humiliate
a person.
Today's Zaman
Dec 6 2012
Turkey
6 December 2012 , Istanbul: Armenians abroad and Turkey's Armenian
community were the most targeted communities in articles or news
items that are considered to be hate-speech between May and August
2012, according to a recent report from the Hrant Dink Foundation,
released on Thursday.
The Hrant Dink Foundation regularly monitors the media for stories
that target religious and ethnic minorities, or other disadvantaged
groups such as the disabled or non-heterosexual individuals. Between
August and May this year, there were 101 op-ed columns and news
articles identified by the foundation's experts as targeting national,
ethnic and religious groups. There were 35 items targeting women and
individuals with sexual orientations that differ from the general
population.
The report found that the number of groups targeted went down to
15 communities from 17 in the first two reports. The majority of
the content that contains hate speech was from the national press,
the report found. Some 82 per cent of items classified as containing
hate speech, was found in national media. The remaining 18 per cent
came from local newspapers. Also, the report found that the majority
of hate speech is disseminated in the work of columnists.
in the period between May-August, the groups that were targeted most
often were, respectively, Armenians, Christians, Jews and Greeks,
the report said. It noted, "Out of this group, the aspect that stood
out the most in terms of hate speech towards Armenians, which we
may identify as a fixed category, was their association with the
[terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party] PKK within the context of the
recently intensifying conflict. This discourse, produced through
an understanding that "Muslim Kurds are harmless and the PKK is an
Armenian movement," was also seen to be reproduced at times with
content targeting Christians and Jews. However, the most dominant
assertion was that of Armenians supporting the PKK, looking for
opportunities to harm Turkey, the "eternal enemy," and being a risk
factor."
The report also found that the number of stories and columns using
hate speech against Kurds is increasing. "This increase was observed
to coincide with the months of July and August, when armed conflict
intensified, and the Kurdish people were noted as having been charged
within the context of the clashes with the PKK. In this kind of
content, the issue was reduced to "Kurdish terror," either implying
that "patience was running thin" or creating enmity by attributing
the issue to the Kurdish people."
in addition to religious or ethnic minorities, the report found 35
items that employed hate speech directed at the Lesbian, Bisexual,
Gay and Transgender (LBGT) community. In addition, the report says the
Turkish press in its representations of transvestites and transsexuals
associates these individuals with "crime" and "social unrest."
The report said newspapers that gave the most space to hate speech
in the May-August period, not unlike in previous periods, were those
with a nationalist-conservative editorial line, with Milli Gazete,
Yeni Akit, Ortadogu, Yenicag and Yeni Mesaj newspapers once again being
the publications with the most frequent occurrences of hate speech.
The Hrant Dink Foundation has been monitoring the media for hate
speech since 2009. It says its main purpose is to combat racism,
discrimination and intolerance in Turkey. The foundation monitored
approximately 1,000 local newspapers and all national newspapers
through the Media Monitoring Centre using various key strings (such as
collaborator, Turcophobe, separatist etc.). In addition to the keyword
alerts, 16 newspapers, chosen in line with their circulation volume,
are read and manually monitored as part of the foundation's hate-speech
watch efforts. The news is evaluated on the basis of four categories
of hate speech. The first category of "Exaggeration/attribution
/distortion" involves negative stereotyping and distortion. The second
category of "Blasphemy / insult / degradation," includes the direct use
of denigrating or obscene words towards the targeted group. The third
category, "Enmity/war discourse," is any item that contains hostility
and war-mongering expressions about a community. The fourth category,
with the difficult name of "Use of inherent identity as an element
of hate or humiliation / symbolization," contains discourses where
the attributes of a person acquired from birth are used to humiliate
a person.