Farewell to Duvar

Gazete Duvar started its journey on Aug. 8, 2016 at a time when the political conjuncture was quite severe. (Under Gazete Duvar, Duvar English started its journey in 2019.) Since then, unfortunately, the political and social atmosphere in our country has become increasingly more severe. In such a period of time and under such challenging conditions, we did what we described, what principles and decisions we put before us and declared in line with the understanding of independent, impartial and free journalism. We have undoubtedly made mistakes and shortcomings. However, we can say this: There has never been a news reporting that we were ashamed of doing or that we questioned ourselves, our courage and our conscience for not doing it.

We believed that journalism that is not instrumentalized by official ideology, political engagement, commercial and political ambitions, and that does not surrender to the conjuncture can be successful, and we have succeeded in becoming an influential outlet that has won the trust and interest of readers from all walks of life.

Our journalist friends are the main reason for our efforts to be the voice of truth every day, almost every minute of every day in the difficult and arduous process of the past nine years. As the management, we have only provided them with an environment in which they can do their jobs in a peaceful working environment, and they have shown us what can be done when the right environment is provided. We are grateful to each and every one of them.

In this journey, we would like to thank all the journalists, editors, news directors and writers who have contributed their knowledge, experience and efforts to Duvar since its foundation. The labor and contribution of all of you is enormous.

We owe it to all our friends who have not sold their consciences despite all the difficulties of their positions and situations since the beginning, and who have given material and moral support to this project, to say “thank goodness you exist.”

To Duvar readers who have not left us alone from the very beginning: You did what a good news outlet deserves, you did not stop there, you criticized and warned when necessary. You have been an active, not passive, component of the outlet. We would like to take this opportunity to emphasize once again how important your presence and all kinds of support are for us. With this decision, we will leave you a little incomplete, but we know that there are many outlets in this country that do good journalism. We are confident that they will quickly fill the gap we have relatively created.

Without further ado, here are the reasons for our farewell: Duvar emerged with certain ambitions, both in terms of understanding and a large staff. In the beginning, we set ourselves the goal of reaching an outlet that could stand on its own feet in five years. Of course, we have experienced how difficult this is in rapidly changing conditions. Despite all the difficulties, we have never lost this horizon.

But recently we have found ourselves in the middle of a media desertification that has started globally and has affected us as well. With Google's algorithm changes, we have begun to suffer serious revenue losses, which we expect to continue. Being at the mercy of a global technology giant that is not accountable for its actions is a separate and current topic of discussion for journalism.

In addition, inflationary economic policies and crises in Turkey have almost doubled publishing costs in recent years. On the other hand, the living conditions of media workers have declined to the point of impoverishment at the same rate. Therefore, under the current circumstances, as the management, we might not have been able to bear the conscientious burden of the sacrifices that we would have to ask more from our colleagues who are already working in this difficult and risky profession. If we had not taken this decision today, we might have faced conditions that would have affected our working peace in a very short time.

Despite all these economic sustainability challenges and the gravity of the political situation, we continued to publish. However, under conditions where the media was becoming increasingly powerless against economic risks, we decided that the most appropriate course of action was to cease Duvar's activities for the time being. Perhaps we could have continued on our way by “downsizing,” but this path also carried the risks of confronting us with many choices that we would not want in a very short time. Therefore, we have come to the conclusion that it is the best decision to end this business for the time being, leaving seeds of morale and understanding for the future, in a place and situation where we preserve our claims and our working peace. On this occasion, we would like to underline once again how important it is to support all news outlets, newspapers and their employees who are trying to continue their work properly.

Finally, it has been a great privilege for us to work with our Editor-in-Chief Barış Avşar. Thanks to Barış Avşar, the 'name father' of Gazete Duvar, whom we have leaned on since the first day with his always looking out for the rights of the employees, his incredible contact with his colleagues, his solution to problems and his endless work-oriented energy.

Goodbye for now Duvar...

It’s time to say farewell to Duvar…World