Media and how attacks are covered

Media ignores Turkey attacks, instead covering Brussels attack

Artie Lambert, Reporter, The Bagpipe|April 1, 2016

While Brussels suffered a devastating attack on the March 22, Ankara (in Turkey) was struck by it’s own bombing, just nine days prior. On March 13, a car bomb went off in a crowded neighborhood, killing at least 37 people, and injuring more than 100 other people who happened to be nearby. The target of the attack is currently unknown, but the attack was claimed by the Kurdish militant group TAK. Many people are outraged at the dearth of media coverage for this attack, as it occurred within the same time frame as the Brussels attacks, but was vastly overshadowed.

In another area of Turkey, in Istanbul, an ISIS suicide bomber killed 4 people or more in a busy tourist area. Based on these string of attacks, dating back to even the Charlie Hebdo killings, it’s easy for someone to see that the war and violence that ISIS and other militant groups is spreading from the Middle East to parts of Europe that people wouldn’t have dreamed to be the site of terrorist attacks. As a result of the attacks in Turkey, Israel has even issued a warning to all of its citizens to avoid Turkey, after gaining information on what might be a plot for an attack on Jews in Turkey by terrorists. Turkey itself has even raised their threat level in response to these recent attacks both in Ankara and Istanbul, from a level three threat, which is their basic threat level, to a level two, which denotes a high threat level.

In the past eight months the Islamic State has claimed more than four of the six bombings that Turkey has been victim to in the past eight months, averaging out to more than one terrorist attack per month.
The PKK, a radical splinter group of the Kurdistan Workers Party has claimed the other two attacks.
Yet, not many news sources noted the attacks that happened in Turkey, instead focusing on attacks in Paris, and Brussels, which leaves more curious onlookers with the question, why?

Why are certain terrorist attacks more heavily publicized than others? Why was the story of a man who saved lives by sacrificing his own (a father in Beirut, who tackled a suicide bomber, saving more than one hundred lives) less important than the stories of other terrorist attacks that were more heavily publicized, even though they occurred within a week of each other?

The mystery remains at the forefront of many people’s minds.

Turkey is still recoiling from the large amount of attacks they had suffered this year alone, but are working to rebuild and prevent further disasters.