The head of the Turkish Presidency's Directorate of Communications says the country faced a disinformation campaign that could have serious consequences, in the aftermath of deadly earthquakes in the southeastern provinces, which killed over 53,000 people on Feb. 6, 2023. Fahrettin Altun was speaking on Monday at a symposium entitled Disaster Communications in the First Anniversary of Disaster of Century, in the capital Ankara. Türkiye calls the two earthquakes the disaster of the century as they are the deadliest for Türkiye in that time period, which also saw a 7.4 magnitude earthquake killing thousands in 1999.
"We exposed more than 200 news reports containing disinformation, lies between Feb. 6 and Feb. 20 (2023) whose impact could have been serious. We also exposed the actors behind those fake content," Altun, whose directorate oversees the Center for Combating Disinformation, said, adding that they followed up with an investigation of the fake news and subsequent prosecution for those involved in manufacturing that content.
The directorate has published bulletins on exposed fake news and disseminated it in earthquake-stricken provinces following the disaster. "We provided correct information to our citizens in the disaster-hit region," Altun said. Altun said the disinformation campaign primarily aimed to weaken public trust in authorities and hinder search and rescue and relief efforts. "Thus, it aimed to mislead people affected by the disaster directly or indirectly. Thankfully, we prevented these dirty campaigns to achieve their goals, through solidarity between the state and the nation," he said.
Altun said they also worked to contribute to academic knowledge on disaster and crisis management, citing multilingual books and publications prepared by experts on the disaster, solidarity for rescue and relief after the earthquakes and risk prevention.
Altun also thanked Turkish media for providing correct information about post-earthquake efforts amid disinformation campaigns and said they organized a tour of the earthquake-hit regions for local and international journalists on the anniversary of the disaster to provide insight on the post-catastrophe efforts for recovery and rebuilding.
"The Republic of Türkiye has advanced resilience and ability for rapid mobilization in the face of disasters and crises. We will always emphasize this despite disinformation, defamation campaigns," he highlighted.
