RTÜK President Ebubekir ŞAHİN said, “Disinformation has become a national security issue for countries.”
Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) President Ebubekir Şahin said, "Disinformation has become a national security issue for countries. And moreover, it has exceeded being an issue beyond its borders. It has turned out into a global security problem."
RTÜK President, Ebubekir Şahin, attended the Workshop on Combating Disinformation in the Audio-Visual Media. In the opening speech of the workshop, RTÜK President Şahin pointed out that disinformation is referred to as "distortion of information " in the dictionary of the Turkish Language Association and said, "the main source or mediator of disinformation is, unfortunately, the media. As the Radio and Television Supreme Council, we are to be careful about disinformation in the audio-visual media which is the area under our responsibility.”
“We see in all instances that the rate of spread of lies is many times greater than the circulation of real information.”
Pointing out that fake news and false information spread much faster in digital media, Şahin said, "Disinformation has now surpassed the truth, media spaces are filled with lies and false information. The phenomenon of 'fake news, which started to exist with the print media, has unfortunately progressed too much with digitalization. Even the concept of ‘fake news’ that looks as if it has been so innocent since ever has now evolved into a new direction undergoing a transformation. This new direction is called disinformation. Fake news hand in hand with 'manipulation' is all over the media. Along with the diversifying and digitalizing of the media environments, we are witnessing the rapid spread of lies, fabricated news, and disinformation. We see in all instances that the rate of the spread of fake and false news and information is many times greater than the circulation of true information. He also said: “We are so sorry to see that we are often exposed to disinformation campaigns today through digital media outlets. Unfortunately, people and institutions are worn down due to false and distorted news.”
“They fulfilled their duties and commercial activities in a comfortable and free environment which perhaps doesn’t exist in any other country in the world other than Türkiye.”
Providing information about the fight against disinformation methods, Şahin said, "We have recently started the licensing processes of international media organizations, including Netflix, which we called the select-watch platform. All hell broke loose in Türkiye”. “Wow, sir, RTÜK does not want international media organizations to come to Türkiye and is doing its best to prevent it. Foreign media will flee from Türkiye. RTÜK is a censor, RTÜK is a prohibitionist!" "We have passed through such a period. So, what happened? Many organizations, especially Netflix, came to Türkiye and obtained their licenses. They fulfilled their duties and commercial activities in a comfortable and free environment which perhaps doesn’t exist in any other country in the world other than Türkiye."
“Disinformation has become a national security issue for countries.”
Expressing that RTÜK itself lived through the same processes when its related department reminded Voice of America, Euronews and Deutsche Welle of the need of obtaining their licenses a few months ago, Şahin said: “Disinformation has become a national security issue for countries. And moreover, it has exceeded being an issue beyond its borders. It has turned out into a global security problem. In cases where the West calls the act is “Islamophobia” - we know that it is in fact an anti-Islamism or just hostility to Islam, the same disinformation arguments are put into use. Muslims are being declared terrorists although they do never deserve such an accusation. Our scientists discussed this issue at the 2nd International Media and Islamophobia Forum which we organized two weeks ago. One of the common conclusions of the Forum was that Islam was systematically exposed to disinformation campaigns. The trend of digital fascism and fake news are the basic sources of Islamophobia. Disinformation is poisoning democracy, social peace, and all humanity today. Let me draw your attention to the fact that we have constantly warned our broadcasters about the disinformation that has been deliberately or unintentionally revealed in the audiovisual media lately. It is clearly written in our Law No.6112 that broadcasting services should be based on the principles of truth and accuracy. We are always in favor of dialogue, but we do not hesitate to use our sanction power against those who do not heed our well-intentioned warnings. Unfortunately, RTÜK, which is a constitutional institution, may have to use the powers it receives from the Law when necessary. I say unfortunately because punishment is a last resort. We certainly have never allowed the public to be misled and the truth to be covered with lies through broadcasts and we will never allow it in the future. We have got no endurance for the truth to be hidden by perception operations.”