ŜÃÙ çįĉPğQ

94
MAY-JUNE 2013
The insurance of trust in Japanese
newspapers: Wisemen
T
he newspapers in Japan find a
simple way to make objective
news and to be impartial against
the crises that is: Wisemen. This expression
is quite popular nowadays in Turkey
due to the peace process we are living
now and its corresponding meaning in
Japan for the newspapers is to make objective
news and to enable the newspaper
to stand net and clear against the crises.
Nearly 60 millions of newspapers are
being sold in Japan and as having the
third mass circulation rate in Japan the
Mainichi Newspaper’s Bulldog Edition
Editor, Yamada Michiko says that they
are working very hard in order to gain
the trust of public. Michiko says that;
“We have weekly meetings. We are reviewing
the news and columns. We talk
with each other among our colleagues.
We are discussing why that news or column
is written that way. This is something
between us only.” Michiko also tells
us that the newspaper has a Wisemen
group too. Michiko says;” This is a group
consisting of lawyers and free-lance journalists.
They are evaluating the news and
state their opinions about them.” We asked;
“Are they reviewing each and all
news or are they just looking at the disputable
news” Yamada Michiko answered
our question as follows:” They control
the newspaper in general. How was
the policy and behavior of the newspaper
during the double-catastrophes
on March 11th In which direction the
things written were Did the newspaper
protect its impartiality and objectiveness
when the USA declared war to Iraq
What did the newspaper write about it
Did it manage to look on both sides Did
the newspaper look the events objectively
regarding the nuclear energy And
so on. They think over such subjects and
they look the events one by one. They also
look at the special news like this way.”
If we set a “beauty” criterion for
the men; many commentators
would be unemployed now
D
espite the fact that football is a male
dominance game; women football
players had also gained some remarkable
place on the green fields since many
long years. As the men had more right to
speak about this game; our women when
compared with past, started to love the football
more and more and show their interests
to this game. However, almost entire
commentators in the sports programs after
the matches we watch are men. Sometimes
they lose the main track and we witness
their discussions about the subjects other
than football. Such discussions are gone
so far that RTÜK is obliged to set some rules
to these sports programs. Another elegant
sarcasm for male commentators comes
from Banu Yelkovan who is also writing about
football. While we rough up the green fields
with Yelkovan, we especially focused on
the sports programs broadcasted in television.
According to Yelkovan, “if we set a “beauty”
criterion for the men; many commentators
would be unemployed now.”