In my country, Turkey, the words “media” and “journalism” have immediate negative connotations: fired, prosecuted and imprisoned journalists; government-seized newspapers and TV stations; social media bans, blocks and limitations; censorship and self-censorship. It is in such an environment – on Aug. 20, 2015 – that we launched a platform under the slogan “Because it’s free”. That platform was Medyascope.tv.
The .tv suffix at the end was not a casual or an arbitrary choice. As opposed to the vast majority of news websites in and out of Turkey, we wanted to create a video-based medium, and not another written journalism platform. We also set our sights on delivering our video broadcasts to our audiences live, adopting new technologies like Periscope.
Let me underline one point: with our motto, “Because it’s free” (as in “free speech”), our sole purpose was not to describe the distance we keep from the government. Because nowadays, not all threats towards journalism are coming from high places. We believe that a pressing concern for ratings, viewership and readership metrics is another serious deterrent for the freedom of press.
We usually get a couple of questions from those who know about Medyascope. The first question, typically, is: “Won’t you get in trouble?” Followed shortly after with the other classic: “So how are you going to make any money out of this?”
In all honesty, we do not have a satisfactory answer to either question. But we try to clarify our position with this maxim: a journalist, especially in a country like Turkey, must survive first, yes. But so must his journalism.
This is precisely what we all aspire to do at Medyascope. And not even all of us are journalists, which to me is one of the greatest differentiating factors of Medyascope. It brings together professional journalists with concerned citizens that have a good grasp on new technologies.
Yes, perhaps there is indeed plenty to be pessimistic and hopeless about, but we do lean on each other and try to keep our hope alive in this journey towards creating something good and greater than ourselves. On this path, we meet many people – who we perhaps never would have met otherwise – who generously offer us their support.
In addition to this outpouring of support, being honoured with this award from IPI – only eight months into our operations – tells us that we must be on the right path. We are truly and honestly thrilled to be receiving this invaluable award.
And don’t you worry; we will keep going as long and far as this road will take us. Our faith and hope is such that something good will come out of this venture.
Besides, trying new things always beats sitting in a corner behind the tired cliché: “Journalism is dead.”
On behalf of all my colleagues at Medyascope, I thank you all sincerely for this award and this encouragement. This is an honour we do not take lightly, and we will always put our best foot forward – that’s a promise!
