Conscience has no documents
Despite the fact that we’ve been there since the very moment the injured oilmen were delivered to hospital, police and hospital security officers have not allowed us get the doctors’ official statement.
After a while, I saw the İTV reporter and a cameraman. The hospital guard solemnly took them to interview the doctor. I ran up to them, saying: ‘Why do you make distinctions between the journalists?’ and I was told: ‘Lady, they’ve got a permission from the head doctor.’ I stubbornly stepped into the doorway and said, I would go inside too. I also have the right to get information. And the man told me: ‘Lady, you aren’t even a journalist, are you?!. You have no press credentials. I responded – if you need my press card, it’s in my bag. Take a look and let me in. But he continued repeating it incessantly – you are not a journalist. I was still standing in the doorway. The hospital security guard told a policeman to call for a police squad. To put it shortly, everything got all mixed up. But I still pressed my point. Suddenly, I turned around and whom do you think I saw? The investigator, who took my testimony over Meydan TV case at the grave crimes department. A twist of fate. I addressed him – Ali muallim, could you explain to those people that I am a journalist? After all, you are well aware that I am a journalist. Ali muallim seemed to be confused, he laughed and then seriously said: ‘Lady, please, let me in.’
P.S. Perhaps, what I have been through is my last experience in journalism. I have experienced and seen a lot today. I’ve asked a worker on a stretcher: ‘Are there any dead people?’. To which he replied: ‘It’s not my competence.’ Actually, it was a hard day.
I’ve been in journalism for just 5-6 years. Do I consider myself a professional journalist? No. Not at all. There are so much things to learn. The only thing I am sure of is that I am ready to give my life for the sake of my profession, without even thinking a second. My conscience is clear. If you once realize that it does not work, you can just quit journalism. Go and do something else. But never soil your hands with it and never serve the evil. As the phrase goes – go while the going’s good! Leave, so that after being soiled with it voluntarily, you will not have to write, as if nothing has happened, that ‘what we all are doing is tying a rope around the news throat.’ The only thing I know for sure is that if I cannot work as a journalist, then, for example, with unclouded conscience I can be a good clothes salesperson. The only thing I wish is that my conscience would never leave me. Yours faithfully!
