The Relationship Between Countries Struggle For Independence and News Agencies-the Case of Anadolu Agency

Abstract

With the influence of the French revolution, in the late 20th and early 20th centuries, as the nationalist wind accelerated and the new independent states played a role in the world scene, these states made great use of mass media of the day to explain their causes of being to inner and outer public opinion.

The concept of news agency entered the communication literature in the 19th century. Charles Louis Havas, a former partner of the French newspaper La Gazette de France, has transformed the translation agency it acquired into a news agency called L'Agence de Feuilles Politiques Correspondence Générale, which transposed the news summaries compiled from European newspapers to the French press. Agancies like Wolff in 1849 by Bernard Wolff, owner of the National Zeitung newspaper in Berlin in 1849, Reuter by Paul Jolius Reuter in London in 1851, Telegraphen Korrespondenz Bureau (Korrbureau) agencies as Austrian Hungarian state agency in Vienna in 1860 were established.

The monitoring of publishing policies of these agencies in the interests of their own countries, and especially the establishment of Korrbureau as a state agency, inspired similar news agencies in other countries.

Most of the states that were struggling for independence, went to establish a news agency as first thing to do to promote and propaganda. Bulgaria, for example, established the Bulgarian Telegraph agency BTA in 1898 before it achieved full independence. Greece nationalized the private Stephanopolis Telegraph Agency in 1905 which was founded in 1895 and established the Athens News Agency as we now know today. In Romania, which declared its independence in 1877, the Romanian Telegraph Agency was established in 1899, and as soon as Albania won its independence, one of the first institutions to operate in 1912 was the Albanian Telegraph Agency ATA.

As in these examples, the Anatolian Agency is one of the first institutions established in Turkey during the independence struggle in the Independence War. Gazi Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) stated the purpose of the agency which is to "enlighten the public by publishing the most accurate news" in the notice issued on April 6, 1920. While the agency quoted the achievements achieved in the fronts during the national struggle, also announced the establishment of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and thereafter has become the voice of the government.

In this article, the role of the Anatolian Agency in the independence of the national agencies of the countries is examined in the light of the publications of the establishment of the Turkish state. In the preparation of this article, books and articles published previously about the subject and archival documents were referred.