December 14, 2011

Old reflexes of media against faith will rise again

Zafer Özcan

The name of Ferhat Barış first came to public attention in 1999 in the wake of the release of a videotape that was doctored in a way to make the public believe that religious scholar Fethullah Gülen was trying to get Turkey under his control and was shown on various TV stations.

Journalist Barış fought against a smear campaign targeting the religious people of Turkey through his columns published in the Zaman daily. The tape incident is only one example of attempting to manipulate public opinion carried out in recent decades in Turkey.