ON COMMUNICATION WITH HIFZI TOPUZ
Ayça Demet Atay · DergiPark (Istanbul University) · 2024
Conducted in the form of interviews, this study is based on the documentary “On Communication with Hıfzı Topuz” and it consists of four sections. In the first section, Hıfzı Topuz recounts the story of the International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems, known as the MacBride Commission, appointed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), where he served for many years. He discusses the commission’s significant place in the history of global communication and narrates the story of the commission’s report titled “Many Voices, One World” from an insider’s perspective.In the second section titled “Communication Policies,” Hıfzı Topuz explains why there is a need for communication policies and how these policies should be formulated. He emphasizes the increasing importance of the communication field after technological advancements and stresses the necessity of “not leaving it unregulated” but rather “planning it for the public good”. Topuz highlights that communication should not solely serve the dominant class but should be for the benefit of the public, stating that this is a matter of “planning.”The third section contains his memories as one of the three founders of Turkiye’s first journalists union, regarding journalists’ unionization. It also includes his observations concerning the current lack of unionization of journalists.In the fourth section titled “Alternative Media”, Hıfzı Topuz addresses the following question, based on his experiences in Africa: “How can alternative media channels that are not tools of the dominant class’s propaganda, and the content and structure of which are determined by the public be established against monopolistic big capital?”