Mehmet Yilmaz: The Tesco squeeze of Vatan daily
Güncelleme Tarihi:
The Tesco-Kipa market chain has taken the decision “not to sell” Vatan daily newspaper, who has been closely monitoring claims that AKP party deputy chairman Saban Disli was involved in adjusting the planning permission of lands purchased by the supermarket chain.
The statement sent to the newspaper’s distribution company said, “From this point forward, do not deliver Vatan daily to our stores; we will not be selling it.”
I don’t think that Vatan daily will be negatively affected by this decision.
The daily sales figures of newspapers at supermarkets are negligible, and it is likely that Tesco’s contribution is even more so.
If I was heading the management of a newspaper distribution firm, I wouldn’t even bother distributing newspapers to chain supermarkets, because as we all know, selling dailies at supermarkets is more beneficial to the actual market chain than to the newspaper itself.
Anyway, this is not the issue here. The same applies to any newspaper that would approach Tesco-Kipa and say, “If you don’t want us to publish any news we have about your company, give us this amount of advertising”, it is immoral, and it is outright extortion.
Now I want to ask this: What name would we give to an offer from Tesco-Kipa that says, “If you publish an (damning) article about us we will disrupt sales of your newspaper?”
The gossip would begin the moment that journalists or newspapers learn of the immoral behavior of one of their peers and those undertaking such corrupt actions would eventually be forced to quit the profession.
There are many similar examples of this in the past. Now I am waiting for the private sector, which claims to be transparent and honest in its dealings, to react to this situation.
Let’s see if anyone condemns the company that restricts freedom of the press with threats of extortion.