Fatih Polat, Editor-in-Chief of our newspaper Evrensel, wrote about the cancellation of our right to publish official advertisements by the Press Advertisement Agency: This newspaper will not bow down to those who are paid to silence it. Never!
Fatih Polat
Fatih Polat, Editor-in-Chief of our newspaper Evrensel, wrote about the cancellation of our right to publish official advertisements by the Press Advertisement Agency: This newspaper will not bow down to those who are paid to silence it. Never!
In September 2019, the Press Advertisement Agency (BİK), which stopped the flow of official advertisements to Evrensel in September 2019 and imposed a total of 108 days of advertisement bans on the grounds of various news and articles - in violation of the Constitution, as clearly seen in the latest reasoned decision of the Constitutional Court - has cancelled Evrensel's right to publish official advertisements. This decision of the BİK dated 17/08/2022 has just been received (22 August).
Evrensel had paid the audit fee required for the last audit of BİK on 24 June 2022, and as stated in the notification of the cancellation decision, dealer audits were carried out on 19 July 2022 and administrative audits on 20 July 2022.
As will be seen in detail in our news article on the subject, BİK claims that as a result of the dealer audits, the provision of the BİK's advertisement regulation "According to the fourth paragraph of Article 46, it is essential that the sales at the end-point secondary dealers are actually and one by one, with the exception of sales made more than once for reasonable and acceptable reasons" has been violated. Citing allegations of "650 sales in 13 different provincial and district organisations of the Labour Party", "85 sales in 3 different municipalities" and bulk sales from some other dealers, the court ruled that Evrensel had exceeded the 4,000 threshold for the right of advertisement in this way.
BİK also invented a number of other grounds to justify the cancellation.
Let us reiterate a fact we have stated dozens of times before. There was no such problem between Evrensel and BİK until the change of management at BİK before the process that started with the freezing of Evrensel's advertisement rights in 2019. After that, in our opinion, as a result of the complete AKPisation of the institution, a policy of economically strangling Evrensel by producing various justifications was adopted. This latest judgement tells us the following: "Don't trust the Constitutional Court's ruling on advertisement fines. Look, we are determined to strangle you economically despite that judgement." In other words, this attitude will be insisted on as long as the AKP government and the ruling will that dominates BİK continue.
We had previously written following the Constitutional Court's ruling on the violation of rights regarding BİK's advertisement cut-off fines against four newspapers and its finding that "there is a structural problem." Let us repeat. A research commission should be established in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey on this issue. What are the real dealer sales of which newspapers, and to which newspapers does the Press Advertisement Agency give advertisements based on real sales and to which newspapers based on circulation figures that are massively inflated and covered up by BİK?
Every political party, municipality and trade union can buy a newspaper in bulk and distribute it to their members. Where is the problem with this? While BİK, which distributes advertisements with a budget made up of people's taxes and whose founding rationale includes the statement "Supporting the press regardless of opinion", is trying to collect data to cancel Evrensel's right to advertise by sending its staff all over the country in the style of an intelligence organisation, I wonder what kind of a record it has in terms of controlling the ruling press?
We are facing a complete political silencing operation.
Recently, the workers of As Plastik, who were struggling for their trade union rights, held up Evrensel and shouted, "It is written in Evrensel". Yes, political bureaucrats of BİK, Evrensel belongs to those workers. As long as those hands hold Evrensel with such enthusiasm, you cannot silence this newspaper. You have used the people's taxes to support your newspapers that propagate the abyss to which dirty hands have organisedly pushed this country. The sparkling hands of the workers who produce all the positive values in this country are the lifeblood of Evrensel. So don't be in vain!
In the meantime, we will undoubtedly object to the cancellation of our right to advertise within the required period. All legal remedies will be used to the fullest, as if there is law in this country.
This newspaper, which voices the demands of the workers and labourers of this country and all oppressed peoples, will not bow down to those who are paid to silence it. Never!
We say this with the strength we get from our readers who have defended Evrensel until today. Now it is time to protect Evrensel even more. Buying the printed Evrensel and subscribing to our e-newspaper will be a strong response to BİK's attempt to strangle it.
Aras Coşkuntuncel
