Turkey’s Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) on Wednesday said broadcasters should include positive developments in their reports instead of focusing on the negative, the Deutsche Welle Turkish service reported.
In a written statement released on its website the country’s national censor said broadcasters should avoid acting on the notion that news should be limited to negative developments.
“We would like to remind our friends in the news media that positive developments are also newsworthy,” RTÜK said.
RTÜK criticized what it described as a careless display of violence by the media, claiming that it is one of the top issues people complain about.
“Visual and auditory content involving violence may act as an incentive for our youth as well as cause us as a society to normalize violence, which may lead to dangerous consequences.”
It also slammed the careless use of amateur videos obtained from social media and footage from security cameras as unethical.
“The quest for ratings should never outweigh human dignity,” the statement said.
RTÜK also announced a new regulation in the works that is planned to oblige broadcasters to use the parental advisory categories on the news, similar to those used on other TV shows.
In addition to supervising TV and radio broadcasts, RTÜK was recently handed vast powers of censorship over online providers, such as paid subscription-based Internet streamers like Netflix or Turkish language YouTube news channels launched by foreign media outlets.