The referendum and journalism in Turkey

The pre-referendum period was particularly informative with regard to the state of journalism in Turkey, with widespread violations of ethical principles and with partisan journalism intertwined with politics.   

During crucial decision-making periods for societies, such as referendums, journalists should perform the function of informing the people. Unfortunately, a large portion of the Turkish media, instead of informing people, opted to undertake the duty of simply reflecting the ruling party's discourse. "Partisan journalism" was on widespread display. 

Many stories should have been more impartial regarding the "Yes" and "No" options. Both sides should have been served equally. However, the "Yes" opinion dominated many news stories, with the discourse of politicians supporting this option covering the largest portion of news pages and TV shows. The media became a tool for bombarding society with the "Yes" option. 

Certainly there is no ethnical harm in writers expressing their opinions either in the direction of "Yes" or "No." However, while individual "Yes-supporting" writers had no problem expressing their views, many "No-supporting" writers had to resort to indirect expressions. 

Journalism should be critical and questioning during all campaign periods. But during this referendum the critical and questioning approach was used overwhelmingly against opposition parties rather than the political authorities. As a result, stories where the true and false blended together were printed and broadcast in many media outlets. 

There is a whole other set of questions to be asked in terms of opinion polling. To prevent public polls from being used to manipulate society, information such as the name of the company that carried...