On the 7th May, Britain is holding one of the most unpredictable general elections with no party to win a majority.
There are strict rules and regulations governing television and radio broadcasts in their coverage of election campaigns but for the printed and online press, pretty much anything goes.
British press has been more partisan than usual and, according to some, the quality of its election coverage has never been more trivial.
The Guardian columnist George Monbiot was particularly critical of the media, not so much for what they report, but for what they do not. “Anyone would think that the media didn’t want us to understand the real choices confronting us” he wrote.
The corrupt and broken system under which the British voters will be voting, the system of political funding giving the super-rich and big corporations power to influence policy, urgent need for financial and fiscal reform, unequal tax burdens and numerous social problems ranging from an epidemic of loneliness to the shocking rise in conditions such as self-harm – there are many issues that both the political parties and the media have largely ignored.
Reading George Monbiot’s criticism of the silence of politicians on these crucial issues, enforced by “a narrow and retentive public discourse, dominated by the corporate media and the BBC, which ignores or stifles new ideas, grovels to the elite and ostracises the excluded, keeping this nation in a state of arrested development” made me look at Turkey’s election campaign with a different eye.
There is no impartial public broadcaster in Turkey and the communications regulator, The Supreme Council of Radio and Television (RTUK) has done nothing to stop the one-sided reports by radio and television channels giving an unfair advantage to the governing party.
The majority of the mainstream media is more than biased. As well as conducting negative campaigning against the opposition parties and their candidates, some are positively engaged in “manufacturing” documents and evidence to undermine opponents.
A handful of independent publications and journalists, together with some in social media, are trying their best to hold the politicians to account but they are not popular or influential enough to push many of the crucial but wilfully ignored issues on to the political agenda.
If I were to list four big issues that really matter in Turkey’s general election on the 7th June but rarely get debated as a significant policy issue during the campaign, this is what it would look like – in no particular order.
- Work accidents leading to ‘injury or loss of life of the worker’.
According to the Mechanical Engineers Unit (MMO) of Turkey’s Chamber of Architects and Engineers’ (TMMOB), the number of workplace accidents skyrocketed in 2013 by 291% from the previous year to 191,389. “With the existing laws and regulations, the working situations are expected to get worse and more people will die due to the inefficient working conditions,” said the TMMOB. A year after the biggest mine disaster in Turkey’s history, the responsibility of the state for the failure to protect lives of workers must be put firmly on the agenda.
- Violence against women.
100 women have been killed in the first 4 months of 2015 in Turkey. The government’s failure to take effective action to end violence against women must be more of a priority for all political parties running in the election.
- Turkish policy toward the Syrian crisis.
A particularly confusing issue. The New York Times , quoting the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) has reported that Turkey is still allowing cross-border trade to Syria, giving ISIS access to “goods from energy drinks to fertiliser”. Turkish main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has claimed that Turkey might launch a military operation in Syria within the next couple of days.
With close to 2 million refugees on its soil, Turkey has to put Syrian issue at the top of its election agenda.
- The deteriorating state of judicial independence.
The latest example of government’s blatant ignorance of the rule of the law was on Wednesday when four prosecutors and a gendarme officer were arrested for trying to search a Syria-bound truck driven by state intelligence officers, suspected of carrying illegal arms for Syrian rebels.
There are many more vital issues that deserve to be debated in a general election campaign but I will be grateful if my modest list of four gets a look in. After all, the protection and respect of human life in the workplace and at home, justice and equality for men and women, protection from persecution, respect for international law and crucially upholding the “rule of law” make up the most important foundation stones of a democracy.
This post is also available in: Turkish
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