Turkish minister blames media for violence against women

ISTANBUL - Doğan News Agency

Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin. AA photo

The country’s media has legitimized violence against women by drawing a great deal of attention to incidents of violence through articles, Turkey’s Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin said.

The way the media reports on stories of violence against women is problematic, Ergin said when speaking at a symposium on the “struggle with violence against women in the context of human rights.”

“The media’s extreme interest in this subject causes women to be victimized twice. Visibility brings questions of legitimacy to the table. There is no doubt that it is [within the] freedom of the press to bring these stories to the [public’s] agenda and it means serving the awareness of society, but the media has a responsibility during the investigation process,” Ergin said.

Ergin also said that the “media’s extreme reports” were normalizing violence within the family.

“We shouldn’t find the use of violence as a problem solving method strange when speaking about the ones who grow up in the atmosphere of violence and the ones who have been taught the language of violence,” he said.

“In the process of socializing, if a female child witnesses violence in the family this will affect her whole life. Similarly, a male child that grows up in a violent environment can commit violence,” he said.

Incidents of domestic violence in Turkey increased from 48,000 cases in 2008 to over 80,000 in 2011.