Presidency's Director of Communications Fahrettin Altun, in his speech at the opening of the "TRT World Forum 2023," which was held for the 7th time this year with the theme "Growing Together: Responsibilities, Actions, and Solutions," said, "The political consciousness that our President has developed in this process has brought about in our country a political awareness that has enabled the development of rational and viable resistance strategies against the disinformation campaigns."
Stating that Israel systematically produced and sought to disseminate false and misleading news to hide the brutality and genocidal massacres it commits, he said, "This is essentially one of the methods of Israel's dirty propaganda machine that we are familiar with. However, this time Israel cannot easily manipulate the world public with its lies and faces the struggle for truth that we are waging under the leadership of our President."
Stating that the world communities have to act together in this process to produce solutions together and define shared responsibilities, Director of Communications Altun stated that there were steps they needed to take together and common solutions they needed to produce against global problems.
Director of Communications Altun stated that the main motive that brought them together today at this international platform in Istanbul was the quest for and endeavour to produce shared solutions to their shared problems, and said, "Because we are all aware that today we are tested by global injustice on the one hand and global helplessness on the other." Director of Communications Altun also added that in this age of uncertainty, strategic communication ceased to be a secondary element of public policy and international relations and turned into an active foreign policy instrument as well as one of the important elements of national security.
"These disinformation attacks were foiled thanks to our President's truth-oriented politics"
Director of Communications Altun emphasised that the disinformative atmosphere across the globe reached a point where it threatened the political stability, democracies, public health, and economic environments of countries and said:
"Türkiye is one of the countries that experienced this situation the harshest and earliest. Actors who are disturbed by Türkiye's transformation into an effective regional power and global actor have intensively used the weapon of disinformation against Türkiye in the past 10 years. Gezi Park events, December 17-25 FETO operations, July 15 invasion attempt under the guise of a coup... During all these events, Türkiye was exposed to severe disinformation attacks both internally and externally. Thankfully, these disinformation attacks were foiled and failed, thanks to the truth-oriented politics of our President."
Director of Communications Altun stated that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, from the first years of his entry into politics, demonstrated a steadfast resistance against the anti-democratic, monophonic and tutelary media order of the period and fought against it, and said, "In this regard, he strived to democratise the media and ensure pluralism and accountability in the field of mass communication. The political consciousness that our President has developed in this process has brought about in our country a political awareness that has enabled the development of rational and viable resistance strategies against the disinformation campaigns that have deepened with the digital media order. And this has become one of Türkiye's important gains."
Director of Communications Altun emphasised that in this way, Türkiye did not surrender to the disinformation campaigns that they encountered in various forms and with varying contents in the last decade and said, "Moreover, in this last 10-year period, Türkiye did not only establish a line of resistance against the disinformation campaigns and social media operations directed at itself. At the same time, it also exported this awareness to the international public. In this period, Türkiye established legislative regulations as well as a public policy to combat the intentional dissemination of fake news through structures such as the Centre for Combating Disinformation and the Verification Platform (Teyit Hattı).
"We were able to effectively fight against vicious disinformation campaigns"
Director of Communications Altun stated that Türkiye implemented successful collaborations in national and international fields while developing new models both in the field of social media literacy and in the individual fight against disinformation through training programmes, and went on to say:
"As a result of these efforts, we were able to successfully fight against vicious disinformation campaigns aimed at triggering social fault lines and disrupting our social unity and integrity during the forest fires, February 6 earthquakes, and May 14 elections. Fortunately, we have exposed the disinformative content produced through both traditional media instruments and digital media spaces with accurate information, in a timely manner, and through the most effective communication channels, and we have shared accurate and real information with the public rather than false and fake content."
He stated that President Erdoğan's efforts to challenge the anti-democratic cultural hegemony in the media, to dampen the attitude against the national will and replace it with socio-political reality, and to build a media ecosystem that reflects diversity and is based on cultural pluralism and professional diversity paved the way for them in their struggle for truth.
Director of Communications Altun said, "Esteemed President, today, within the framework of your vision, we are fighting for a new generation of democracy in the field of competition that has emerged with new media technologies and the reality of social media. With each passing day, we enhance our means and capabilities to counter disinformation, and we are able to impart the knowledge, technologies, and capabilities that we have gained to friendly and allied countries under your leadership."
"With strategic communication moves, we can prevent disinformation from turning into a toxic instrument"
Remarking that they carried out highly productive activities in this context on international platforms, particularly the Organisation of Turkic States and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Director of Communications Altun said:
"Recently, during the global pandemic, the Karabakh war, the Russia-Ukraine war, and the systematic oppression and massacres committed by Israel in Gaza since October 7, we have seen that with the right strategic communication moves, we can prevent disinformation from turning into a toxic instrument in global and regional power struggles. Today, Israel is bent on killing not only babies, children, women, the elderly, and the oppressed in Gaza, but also the truth. Israel has systematically produced and sought to disseminate false and misleading news to hide the brutality and genocidal massacres it commits. As you know, this is essentially one of the methods of Israel's dirty propaganda machine that we are familiar with. However, this time, Israel cannot easily manipulate the world public with its lies and faces the struggle for truth that we are waging under the leadership of our President."
"We have exposed hundreds of Israeli lies"
Director of Communications Altun stated that as soon as Israel's illegitimate and cruel attacks began, President Erdoğan instructed them to establish a task force to fight against Israel's disinformation attacks under the umbrella of the Centre for Combating Disinformation.
Stating that they formed a task force working on a 24/7 basis in line with this instruction, Director of Communications Altun said:
"Fortunately, we have exposed hundreds of Israeli lies. We have exposed Israel's lies, both nationally and internationally, and instead conveyed the truth. Each exposure has deepened Israel's crisis of legitimacy. While endeavouring for the establishment of an independent, strong Palestinian state with geographical integrity and stopping the bloodshed in the region, our President has also been instrumental in preventing the attempts of the tyrants who shed blood to acquit themselves through fake news with his vision and leadership. We shall keep fighting for the truth with all our heart and soul in line with the goals laid out for us by our President in the coming period."
Director of Communications Altun stated that they were aware of the challenging times humanity was experiencing and chose "Thriving Together" as the theme for the forum as a result.
"Disinformation has become an attitude, not a state"
Stressing that one of the issues they need to focus on most in these difficult times is the fight against disinformation, Director of Communications Altun concluded his words as follows:
"Disinformation has become an attitude, not a state. We must wage a scientific, organised and international struggle against this attitude. We must not allow perceptions to supersede facts, and lies to replace truth. At a time when information is being weaponised through hybrid wars, international corporations are seeking to create a news monopoly, media magnates are trying to obscure the truth through selective censorship, and the truth is under attack like never before, we must cry out 'long live the truth' and implement policies accordingly. We are working to engage in the same struggle under the leadership of our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan."
