Organizational efforts within Turkish press, case study: The press council

299 ABSTRACT Organizational efforts within Turkish press, which met quite late with the newspaper in comparison with the Western countries, started with the environment of freedom brougth by the II Constitutional Monarchy. The fist attempts of establishing organizations resulted unsuccessfully due to various reasons; however during the years following the declaration of the Turkish Republic many organizations, associations and trade unions were established in Turkish press. Other than these organizational efforts; the first time, when journalists joined together and established a self-supervision model with the aim to supervise themselves, was after the Military Coup on May 27, 1960. This self-supervision model was called the Press Honor Council, but shortly after being established this Council lost its functionality and its supervision over journalists. Together with the establishment of the self-supervision mechanism, discussions on ethics that had started in Western countries much earlier were also raised in the Turkish press. Following the Military Coup on September 12, 1980, a new model for the Turkish press, other than the organizations mentioned above, was searched for and decision was taken to establish the Press Council. Just like the Press Honor Council, the Press Council was also established as a necessity following the Military Coup. The Press Council, that was established so as to spent effort for the freedom of press and the to provide respect and reliability of press, has been discussed and criticized since the very beginning of its establishment. The sanction that is implemented by the Press Council, being in an effort to have Professional Principles of Press been applied and to set ethical standards for journalists, its nothing more than displaying. The Council that has different functions than other professional organizations, is known more and more by the public opinion each passing year. The Press Council maintains to be the only hope for the Turkish press being in lack of a strong organizational structure.