More than a pair of dimes to examine the paradigm
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mayıs 02, 2009 00:00
Monday, May 3, is "World Press Freedom Day," an occasion that deserves notice. I am writing on the morning of May 1, an occasion that a few blocks from my house will soon transform into a test of wills over freedom of expression. So let me deal with both dates.
The Enlightenment of the 18th century onward has been one fitful, European-inspired endeavor in pursuit of a basic set of rules to consecrate freedom of thought and expression. Turkey is as good a barometer as any to measure just how far we’ve come in 300 years. And within that exercise in measurement, it is not immodest to say that my little newspaper is as good a laboratory as you will find. A hot little petri dish, in fact.
The practical details of this continuing endeavor do Ğ about every 15 minutes or so Ğdistract any editor of a Turkish newspaper from thinking broadly on the criteria of free speech progress. Last night I distributed gas masks to reporters whose courage is always an inspiration. I hope they are using them and the worry today is among distractions.
Another challenge to thinking broadly on concepts of freedom this morning is certainly the several hundred police taking over the sidewalk beneath my apartment balcony. That just moments ago, a standoff between them and demonstrators filled my living room with the smell of tear gas, when I was stupid enough to rush to the balcony, is just part of the problem. But the question is not of this contest of stones and slogans versus water cannons downstairs. It is larger, and I have an idea to prove my case. It won’t be ready, however, until next "World Freedom Day." May 3, 2010, that is to say.
My idea is a grant application to the European Union’s "7th Framework Fund." Trust me, this one’s a winner. I will be looking for a worthy NGO to take this on. I don’t even want to be a "partner." But I can help you through the steps. In my experience of the various administrative fees, etc., with which you have to stud these applications, the NGOs net after expenses will be in the neighborhood of 60,000 to 70,000 euros. Maybe more. First, a title. It can be anything as long as it includes the word "paradigm." Grant jurors love paradigms. Something like: "A Scoping Project to Assess the Public Consciousness Paradigm Toward Freedom of Expression in Tomorrow’s European Union." How’s that?
Next, a terse but catchy "project description." Something like this: "The following scoping project seeks to go beyond existing European Commission methodologies, including Eurobarometer, to robustly measure the sociological multi-plaining of free expression contextualization, embrace of democratic values and perspective diversity within the public consciousness paradigm of seven European societies. Said cities will include four EU member states, two states of accessionary candidature and one (insert the formal term for the weird EU-Norway relationship here; always include non-member Norway in EU applications. Norway has the money)."
I will spare further use of Eurojargon or this column will not fit in today’s Daily News. But over the next 20 or 30 pages of the mind-bending grant application, you have to argue with this arcane language.
What we will do is identify seven central newsstands in seven major cities. There have to be many other things, including a methodology developed by referees from university faculties of communication outside of the seven countries and a few other things to assure credibility and a proper spread of what they call the "footprint of geographic appeal." But it will boil down to this:
On an arbitrary date, or rather a "random" date, we will conduct raids on the seven newsstands in, say, Istanbul, Bucharest, Zagreb, Oslo, London, Paris and Vienna. We will seize, or buy, copies of every newspaper, magazine, supplement, flier, handout available. If possible, we will also establish a few other things, like how many copies are sold each day. Get the name of the newsagent so we can get back with questions. By nightfall, we will have a start on a small warehouse full of paper, in probably dozens of languages. Remember, seven cities are involved. Over the next six months, all of this has to be catalogued, analyzed, parsed, spliced and diced.
The goal is a truly comparative database on the density of perspective diversity. How pluralistic is the speech and thought we endeavor to protect? We will probably need to match this "print media" exercise with a similar one-day, simultaneous capture of television talk shows and maybe Internet blogs or something. This will become extraordinarily complex and horribly expensive. Lots of plane tickets in the planning stages, too. Which is all fine. We have a year to work on this, and the EU will pay for it.
One thing that should not be speculated upon at the outset, of course, is the conclusion you expect to reach. I am an outsider, and I have no plans to be any actual part of the exercise. So I can tell you what you will find. On the print side, London may edge out Istanbul in this broad measurement of expression. But I doubt it. Istanbul will be "No. 1" or "No. 2" by a tiny margin. On the electronic side, Istanbul will be "No. 1" in Europe, hands down.
What it will reveal is that Turkey is awash in expression. Currently, all existing measurements of freedom of the press are entirely based on the monitoring of sanctions. On Monday, no index or survey will reflect a measurement of the richness of speech and thought. All we will measure is efforts to control it. The latter is important, but the omission of the former is in and of itself an assault of freedom of thought.
Assaults on press freedom occupy the mind of every Turkish journalist. But the assaults do not reflect any lack of Turks who are clearly, articulately and passionately expressing themselves across the full spectrum of debate. It is precisely the opposite. The attempts to sanction free speech in Turkey exist because Turks are speaking freely. And passionately. In much of Europe, there is no need to do so. Free and passionate speech, pluralistic thinking and perspective diversity died years ago.
Not here. Early this morning, a bit before this street scene below was played out, some group set up loudspeakers in an audio challenge to the police. The song was "Venceremos," famous for being composed in 1970 for the presidential campaign of Chile’s Salvador Allende. The lyrics, however, were translated into Turkish. Just one tiny example of expression here. I rest my case that expression is alive and well in Turkey. So are challenges to it. Let’s measure both.
David Judson is editor-in-chief of Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review.
The practical details of this continuing endeavor do Ğ about every 15 minutes or so Ğdistract any editor of a Turkish newspaper from thinking broadly on the criteria of free speech progress. Last night I distributed gas masks to reporters whose courage is always an inspiration. I hope they are using them and the worry today is among distractions.
Another challenge to thinking broadly on concepts of freedom this morning is certainly the several hundred police taking over the sidewalk beneath my apartment balcony. That just moments ago, a standoff between them and demonstrators filled my living room with the smell of tear gas, when I was stupid enough to rush to the balcony, is just part of the problem. But the question is not of this contest of stones and slogans versus water cannons downstairs. It is larger, and I have an idea to prove my case. It won’t be ready, however, until next "World Freedom Day." May 3, 2010, that is to say.
My idea is a grant application to the European Union’s "7th Framework Fund." Trust me, this one’s a winner. I will be looking for a worthy NGO to take this on. I don’t even want to be a "partner." But I can help you through the steps. In my experience of the various administrative fees, etc., with which you have to stud these applications, the NGOs net after expenses will be in the neighborhood of 60,000 to 70,000 euros. Maybe more. First, a title. It can be anything as long as it includes the word "paradigm." Grant jurors love paradigms. Something like: "A Scoping Project to Assess the Public Consciousness Paradigm Toward Freedom of Expression in Tomorrow’s European Union." How’s that?
Next, a terse but catchy "project description." Something like this: "The following scoping project seeks to go beyond existing European Commission methodologies, including Eurobarometer, to robustly measure the sociological multi-plaining of free expression contextualization, embrace of democratic values and perspective diversity within the public consciousness paradigm of seven European societies. Said cities will include four EU member states, two states of accessionary candidature and one (insert the formal term for the weird EU-Norway relationship here; always include non-member Norway in EU applications. Norway has the money)."
I will spare further use of Eurojargon or this column will not fit in today’s Daily News. But over the next 20 or 30 pages of the mind-bending grant application, you have to argue with this arcane language.
What we will do is identify seven central newsstands in seven major cities. There have to be many other things, including a methodology developed by referees from university faculties of communication outside of the seven countries and a few other things to assure credibility and a proper spread of what they call the "footprint of geographic appeal." But it will boil down to this:
On an arbitrary date, or rather a "random" date, we will conduct raids on the seven newsstands in, say, Istanbul, Bucharest, Zagreb, Oslo, London, Paris and Vienna. We will seize, or buy, copies of every newspaper, magazine, supplement, flier, handout available. If possible, we will also establish a few other things, like how many copies are sold each day. Get the name of the newsagent so we can get back with questions. By nightfall, we will have a start on a small warehouse full of paper, in probably dozens of languages. Remember, seven cities are involved. Over the next six months, all of this has to be catalogued, analyzed, parsed, spliced and diced.
The goal is a truly comparative database on the density of perspective diversity. How pluralistic is the speech and thought we endeavor to protect? We will probably need to match this "print media" exercise with a similar one-day, simultaneous capture of television talk shows and maybe Internet blogs or something. This will become extraordinarily complex and horribly expensive. Lots of plane tickets in the planning stages, too. Which is all fine. We have a year to work on this, and the EU will pay for it.
One thing that should not be speculated upon at the outset, of course, is the conclusion you expect to reach. I am an outsider, and I have no plans to be any actual part of the exercise. So I can tell you what you will find. On the print side, London may edge out Istanbul in this broad measurement of expression. But I doubt it. Istanbul will be "No. 1" or "No. 2" by a tiny margin. On the electronic side, Istanbul will be "No. 1" in Europe, hands down.
What it will reveal is that Turkey is awash in expression. Currently, all existing measurements of freedom of the press are entirely based on the monitoring of sanctions. On Monday, no index or survey will reflect a measurement of the richness of speech and thought. All we will measure is efforts to control it. The latter is important, but the omission of the former is in and of itself an assault of freedom of thought.
Assaults on press freedom occupy the mind of every Turkish journalist. But the assaults do not reflect any lack of Turks who are clearly, articulately and passionately expressing themselves across the full spectrum of debate. It is precisely the opposite. The attempts to sanction free speech in Turkey exist because Turks are speaking freely. And passionately. In much of Europe, there is no need to do so. Free and passionate speech, pluralistic thinking and perspective diversity died years ago.
Not here. Early this morning, a bit before this street scene below was played out, some group set up loudspeakers in an audio challenge to the police. The song was "Venceremos," famous for being composed in 1970 for the presidential campaign of Chile’s Salvador Allende. The lyrics, however, were translated into Turkish. Just one tiny example of expression here. I rest my case that expression is alive and well in Turkey. So are challenges to it. Let’s measure both.
David Judson is editor-in-chief of Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review.