The Washington, D.C., Pro Chapter winner in this year’s SPJ high school essay contest is Selin Altintas, a 10th-grader at Poolesville High School in Montgomery County, Md.
In the annual essay contest, students in grades 9 through 12 are asked to write 300 to 500 words on: “Why is it important that we have news media that are independent of the government?”
As the D.C. Pro chapter winner, Selin, who lives in Gaithersburg, Md., will receive two free tickets to the June 11 D.C. Hall of Fame dinner. Chapter member Dan Kubiske has paid for those tickets in recent years and has agreed to do so again this year.
Selin’s entry advanced to judging at the national level against winning entries from other chapters, but did not win one of the overall top three prizes. – Andy Schotz
The following is Selin’s entry:
One of the first times I had ever questioned the news media’s credibility was when my father was reading an article online from a Turkish newspaper. I remember him squinting, getting closer to the computer screen as he read. I could see his brows come together perplexed and in frustration. He lifted his head up, calling my mother over, mumbling to himself about the article. Before my mother even attempted to go over and read the article, she asked what newspaper the article was published in. After hearing where the article was posted, my mother opted to not even glance at the article after making a comment about how not a single word in the article was bound to be true.
This made me think: why would one judge an article or a piece of news based on what news agency had published it? The answer is simple: news agencies in Turkey are known to be either proponents or opponents of the government. These news agencies present news at two extreme ends of the spectrum, giving the people of Turkey all the more reason to distrust the information that is being put to them. The public realize and acknowledge the fact that the media battles and competes with the government for political power rather than performing its act of serving as the government’s watchdog.
Turkey is one of the leading countries to jail journalists. Journalists are put in jail for even the simple reason of publishing a conspiracy theory criticizing an act of the government. Due to this repressive behavior on behalf of the government, the public have acknowledged that the government indirectly controls a huge portion of what is conveyed to them through the different forms of medium. Because of this, the journalists who dare to criticize the government and put forth ideas that the government might not want citizens to be exposed to are in danger of being put in jail. While those who choose to speak their minds are punished for their opinions, the journalist supporters of the government, whom sugarcoat what the government does, are ironically thriving towards success.
Based on the oppressive act of the government threatening journalists to express their true beliefs, the news that is transmitted to the people is altered consciously to please the government. These alterations diminish the truth and legitimacy of the facts, ultimately leading to the country’s people not being able to have faith in what is presented to them. Thus, the public is compelled to judge what they are given for accuracy, but yet again have no way to define what is factual. This distrust in the news media results in broken unification between the people and the government. Without the government influencing the media, the public will not have the suspicion of being deceived through the news media conveyed to them.