Turkish Deputy PM warns media

By Ali Kemal Akan

ANKARA (AA) - Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus warned the media on Thursday to be "cautious, conscious and aware" when reporting.

"The media uses such a venomous narrative sometimes that it is equal to what the terror groups say," Kurtulmus told a conference in the Turkish capital Ankara.

Kurtulmus said with terrorism there came an "imperial narrative" that is "venomous and as dangerous as terrorist groups".

"You need to take a closer look at time before the United States invaded Iraq, when the Mosul problem began," said Kurtulmus. "‘Shia militants’, ‘Turkmen militants’, ‘Arab militants’, ‘Turkish - Kurdish terror groups’, [the media] used these kinds of definitions to make it seem like there was a civil war going on."

"... Yet the fight in Mosul was not a fight between Turks, Kurds, Arabs and Sunnis and Shias," he went on to say. "The problem in Mosul was that there was an imperial sharing and then armed groups tried to share it out."

He also said the Western media avoided using terrorist groups’ names in Mosul.

"I request from friends in the media that we need to be careful and not pamper to this imperial narrative," Kurtulmus said. "We need to use our own language, our own narrative in this fight against terror."

Kurtulmus gave some examples where he said the media should take a stand, including the assassination of former Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrey Karlov.

"The assassin, FETO's pawn, killed the envoy and shouted out his slogans. Our unconscious TV channels, unfortunately continued to air those scenes for minutes," Kurtulmus said.

"Does the RTUK [Turkish media watchdog] need to impose a coverage ban on the situation? The media should be conscious."

Kurtulmus also said terrorist groups needed propaganda but this should not be allowed by any means.