Turkish media executive Çolakoglu to speak at Stevens

HOBOKEN, N.J. - As the Middle East struggles with change, few forces stand to influence public opinion more than the voice of Turkish media. The future of Turkish media is the focus of a public presentation at Stevens Institute of Technology, "The Fourth Emerging Power in the Middle East: Redefining the Turkish Media's Role and Future," by one of Turkey's top media executives, Nuri M. Çolakoglu.

The presentation is set for 7 p.m., Friday, April 2, in lecture hall 228, Kidde Building (central campus - 6th Street at River Terrace), at Stevens. The event, which is free and open to the public, is co-sponsored by Stevens and The Light Millennium, Inc., a non-profit, public benefit organization based in New York City.

Çolakoglu, an experienced international journalist who has long been involved with Turkish media, is Coordinator of Print Media and TV for the Dogan Media Group in Istanbul, which is a major force in Turkish media. He also serves as the General Director of ANS International, the production company of the group. He also is the founder, chairman and CEO of the New Media Company, an independent production company specialized in corporate promotion. He has been involved in launch of six private channels during the last decade. In 2001, he became the general director of CNN-Turk, based in Istanbul.

Today Turkey has 21 nationwide, 15 regional and 220 local TV stations; 22 nationwide distributed daily newspapers; and hundreds of magazines, according to Çolakoglu.

"This is one of the most colorful, most exciting media environments in a region stretching from the Balkans to India," said Çolakoglu.

Recent years have brought increasing freedom to Turkish media. Efforts to meet European standards as Turkey moves toward membership in the European Union have fostered unprecedented change. Some of the latest developments have included, for example, Turkey's lifting of the ban on broadcasting in languages other than Turkish. Kurdish language press and broadcasts now reach a large segment of the Kurdish-speaking public previously not served by Turkish media.

"In order to meet the Copenhagen criteria, the Turkish parliament is weeding out limitations on freedom of expression," Çolakoglu explained. "This is helping Turkey to consolidate its democracy and overcome the taboos of the past.

"Turkish media has a 150-year-old history that began with the westernization and modernization movement in the Ottoman Empire," Çolakoglu said. When it was proclaimed a republic in 1923, he explained, Turkey became the first country in the world with a primarily Muslim population to form a prominent media presence. That momentum continues, and in the post-9/11 world, Turkey's media presence has gained increasing importance for both the Middle East and the world.

Earlier events this year at Stevens have included a presentation in February by one of the world's foremost poets, considered "the Whitman" of Turkish letters, 86-year-old Ilhan Berk. A book of Berk's poetry was recently translated to English by Beykent University's foreign language lecturer Onder Otcu, a Turkish novelist, critic and linguist. The volume, "Selected Poems of Ilhan Berk" was released this year by Talisman, the publishing house of Dr. Edward Foster, Stevens Professor of English and American Literature, and Director of Stevens' Division of Humanities and Social Sciences. Also in February, Stevens hosted a presentation by one of Turkey's best-known young poets, fiction writers and film actors, Kucuk Iskender.

Dr. Foster, an organizer for these events, is a former visiting professor at Beykent University and was a Fulbright lecturer at Haceteppe University in Ankara, Turkey, and at the University of Istanbul.

For more information on The Light Millenium, visit lightmillennium.org.

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