Dozens of journalists gathered in the western province of İzmir on Monday to stage a protest to raise awareness about the economic hardship they endure and to demand better wages to be able to cope with the skyrocketing cost of living in the country, the Bianet news website reported.
The protest was organized by the İzmir branch of the Journalists’ Union of Turkey (TGS) at a time when inflation stands at over 71 percent.
The journalists held a march in central İzmir, carrying placards that read,” We can’t make ends meet, just letting you know,” “Let the bosses pay the price of the economic crisis” and “Wages at the bottom, inflation at the top.”
The journalists appealed to their managers, saying it’s impossible for them to continue reporting when they are overwhelmed by economic problems.
TGS İzmir branch chair Nil Kahramanoğlu gave a statement to the press following the march and said the deteriorating economic situation in Turkey has created widespread poverty for many people and that journalists are among those affected.
She said journalists’ wages were matched to the minimum wage of 17,002 lira ($513) at the beginning of the year but that they are «unable to even buy food enough for a month with this amount of money, referring to the hunger threshold announced by the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (TÜRK-İŞ) as being 18,980 lira.
The hunger threshold, which is defined as the amount of money that a family of four living in the capital city of Ankara needs to spend for healthy and balanced nourishment, was TL 18,980 ($580) in June, nearly TL 2,000 above the minimum wage of TL 17,002, according to data from the TÜRK-İŞ.
“Despite this negative picture, we are trying to do our job in line with the principles of our profession,” she said.
Kahramanoğlu said while journalists report about the financial difficulties faced by minimum wage earners and pensioners from all parts of the country every day, they are also suffering from the same economic problems.
“We have come here today not to report news but to be the subject of the news. We came together to make our voices be heard by the media bosses,” she said, adding that it is impossible for a journalist to concentrate on their job and do good journalism when they are unable to buy food for their family, pay their rent or spend money for arts and culture activities.
She said journalists are the guarantee of the public’s freedoms and that in their absence, people will not know what is going in the country.
Journalists, who are frequently subjected to physical attacks and legal harassment due to their profession in Turkey, are also hard-hit by an economic crisis in the country amid skyrocketing inflation and the continuous depreciation of the Turkish lira.
Turkey’s annual inflation stood at 71.6 percent in June, according to official data, although a separate study released by independent economists from the Inflation Research Group (ENAG) who question the official data put the June figure at 113 percent.
A report drafted by the TGS on the occasion of the World Press Freedom Day on May 3 focused on the widespread poverty among the journalists in Turkey.
The report showed that many journalists were being paid below the hunger threshold, get financial help from their parents to support them and three-quarters of journalists are ready to work another job for the money.
The lira, which lost more than half its value against the dollar in 2021 alone and tumbled 29 percent in 2022 and 26 percent in 2023, has shed another 11.5 percent in the first six months of 2024. It has been the worst performer in emerging markets for several years running due largely to economic and monetary policy concerns under the government of Erdoğan.