Hürriyet Chairwoman Highlights Role Of Media İn Times Of Crisis

Unbiased, accurate reporting by media members is essential especially in times of crisis, such as the World is going through today, Hürriyet chairwoman has said.

Vuslat Doğan Sabancı, who will chair a media session at the United Nations Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul on May 24, hosted a group of esteemed event guests May 22 at a dinner at her house, including UNESCO Director Irina Bokova.

The following is Doğan Sabancı's speech at the event.

"Ms.Director General Irina Bokova, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is an honor to welcome you all both to Turkey and to our home.

Today humanity is going thru one of its most challenging times. Political instability and climate change cause crisis that affect vast number of people.

Media's role is vital especially in crisis times like this.

In order to get to the heart of the problems public needs unbiased, accurate reporting about what is going on in the field. This is an absolute necessity in order to fully grasp the situation. However, this is not easy. The war-zone reporters put their lives at risk for information. 825 journalists were killed while doing their job in the past decade. And unfortunately 9 out of 10 killings remain unsolved.

We, as Doğan Family, are committed to the independent journalism here in our country. Hürriyet, which I am the chair of, was founded in the aftermath of Turkey's multi party democratic system. We've lost one of our editor-in-chief's to a terrorist attack. We know by experience the dangers of independent journalism.

So as a media representative, I would like to take the chance and thank U.N. for its Plan of Action which aims to monitor threats against journalists, as well as setting up mechanisms to protect and train them.

Ms.Bokova, we deeply appreciate your efforts. Thank you.

Media has yet another vital role in addition to independent reporting. Especially at times when there is increasing polarization on almost every topic, in nearly every society.

We hear more and more segregating rhetoric and hate speech in politics, society and media. Islamophobia is a result of that. Division as such creates monologues rather than dialogues, which makes it impossible to search for solutions to today's problems.

On the contrary, media can provide a space where conflicting voices can express themselves, without fear and they can be heard on the playing field of respect and grace.

In this case media, in addition to exercising the right to information and free speech, also contributes to social harmony, peace and reconciliation. That can only be achieved through seeing other people's dignity and right to be heard.

I'd like to complete my argument by a recent example.

When the Syrian refugee crisis started, most of us were busy with the number of refugees and the cost associated to it. This pretty much went on like this.

Up until one day, a young photo journalist of Doğan News Agency, Nilüfer Demir, photographed this little boy's dead body at the shore. The boy's name was Aylan. He became the symbol of humanity crisis associated to refugees.

This photo got published in more than 3,000 publications all around the world. And instantly, it reminded to all of us the first sentence of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is: Every human being has the right to live in dignity.

This example and many more show the important role of media in humanitarian issue and the necessity of NGOs and media to cooperate with each other more than ever in order to bring peace to the world."

(Photo)