A fly in the ointment: how Turkish Cypriot radio news aggravates relations with the Republic of Cyprus

摘要

2008 was a year of optimism for those who wanted to find a solution to the Cyprus conflict. Drawing on data from a news production study and a Critical Discourse Analysis of news broadcasts, this paper looks at the way radio news in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus aggravated relations with the Republic of Cyprus during this time of improved relations. Although on the surface stations applaud the election of pro-federation politicians and efforts being made to resolve the Cyprus conflict, a closer look at the language used by radio news shows that the news is anything but pro-solution. In fact, lexical and grammatical choices perpetuate the conflict, communicating uncertainty, suspicion and even threat, in each case slightly differently, to support each station’s associated ideologies and interests which are consistently anti-unity. These ideological newscasts result from the close relationship between the news media and politics where a plurality of stations offer a range of viewpoints but all are connected to political parties and interests whose concerns are mostly that of self-interest.