Elbir: Politics in Germany cannot be considered independently of the media

Anadolu Agency Sports News Director Kaan Elbir was the guest of the seminar titled “Politics and Media Relationship in Germany” organized by Istanbul Medipol University School of Communication. Speaking about his experiences in Germany, Elbir said: “Politics in Germany cannot be considered independently of the media.” Noting that every media organization has an editorial policy, Elbir continued as follows: “Agencies publish news according to their own editorial policy, but they have to be clear. After a while, readers, listeners, and viewers start to see and hear what they want to see and hear. This directly leads to a subjective rather than objective approach to a communicative ideology. In Germany, because the media has the power of influence over people, journalists use this influence to manipulate, politically or not, using very subtle terminologies. This results in self-censorship. When you cannot be objective, you naturally have to censor things, even if it is not with bad intentions. The German media self-censor on Islam, Türkiye, the Middle East politics, climate change debates, economic interests, and alternative views on social media.”