The Image of Germany in Türkiye: An Analysis of the Perspective of the Turkish Media Over the Last 20 Years

Prologue and Introduction

“You can recognize a good journalist by the fact that he does not make himself common with a cause, not even a good cause; that he is always there, but never part of it,” said my journalistic role model, the great television presenter and journalist Hans Joachim Friedrichs, in an interview in German newsmagazine Der Spiegel. 1 This clever formulation delineates the task of journalists in a democracy: to describe social reality objectively and thus ensure the citizen’s ability to exercise the freedom to make decisions. However, today, the fundamental democratic mandate of the media is in danger worldwide. Rulers’ or political parties’ increasing influence over the media is anything but a marginal phenomenon. This development has spread like wildfire worldwide in the first two decades of the 21st century. In many countries, right-wing and nationalist populism is seeing considerable success in deforming the media—and Türkiye seems to be following the same path. Politically dissenting voices are marginalized instead of being allowed to engage in democratic debate.