Melek touts BYEGM's foreign media monitoring efforts

Turkey's rising international clout in recent years has also helped boost the country's tourism industry, Salih Melek, the head of the Prime Ministry Directorate General of Press and Information (BYEGM), said yesterday. Speaking at a symposium on international media and tourism, co-organized by the Culture and Tourism Ministry and the Turkish Association of Tourism, Environment and Urban Journalists (TURCEV) in cooperation with BYEGM in Ankara, Melek told the participants, including many foreign journalists and tourism experts, about BYEGM and its work. Stating that BYEGM works to ensure better promotion of Turkey all over the world and also follows Turkey coverage in foreign media, Melek said, "Working in concert with related state institutions, including the Foreign Ministry, BYEGM is closely following all Turkey-related developments on the global stage through its comprehensive media monitoring efforts, and it gathers, processes and analyzes all news stories, comments or programs of foreign media outlets on Turkey, thus providing state officials with a key information source on Turkey coverage of foreign media." Telling how BYEGM has established cooperative ties with a number of foreign media organizations from around the world in recent years, Melek said it would continue its efforts to promote media cooperation between Turkey and other countries. Stating that BYEGM is striving to provide better working conditions for foreign journalists covering developments in Turkey, Melek said, "BYEGM bases its efforts on this principle: A stronger and well-established democracy and freedom of expression are only possible through a stronger free press." Melek also talked about BYEGM efforts to make the jobs of domestic journalists easier as well.