With the start of a new year, 2015 turned into another reference point. Throughout 2015, journalism continued to be a dangerous profession with several tragedies. Unsurprisingly, it was also one of the most controversial professions. Throughout the year we tried to contribute to several of these controversies whether local or global.

In 2015, we also tried to live up to the page's name, Reader's Corner. We published emails and letters on the page when we could, trying to form a bridge between our readers and editors. By respecting the right to reply we either published a correction or an argument for our recommendation against it.

When it comes to Daily Sabah, our newspaper experienced rapid growth, especially in terms of its website traffic. I plan to do another in-depth review of the subject in the first quarter of the year. The newspaper's mistakes were also discussed on this page on numerous occasions. For those mistakes, there were two themes that were quite relevant, and a couple of articles dealt with them. The first was concerned with articles about suicides. Several articles on the subject either criticized or recommended a set of guidelines on this sensitive subject. 2016 will show whether they were effective or not.

The second issue we stressed quite heavily was the use of photographs in the newspaper. This problem had two aspects. The first was the issue of a photo's source and the second was captions. As we said repeatedly, photos were and always will be part of the content in the current stage of media, and to maintain our credibility and respect the work of photojournalists we have to follow principles. In the upcoming weeks, we will review the pages to determine where we are in comparison to the original state of the problem. On a side note, the website version of Daily Sabah has been very consistent on this matter for quite some time, and I applaud the diligence.

Lastly, on Jan. 7, we received a letter from the Greek ambassador to Ankara, Kyriakos Loukakis. It was on the latest tragedy to counter the migrant crisis that took place on Jan. 5 in which 36 people lost their lives and washed up on Turkey's Aegean coasts. Daily Sabah's article on the tragedy was titled: "Humanity washed ashore again: 36 dead migrants found on Turkish beaches." Before going on, however, here is the letter from the ambassador:

"A number of reports were published during the last 48 hours in the Turkish media that attempt to lay the blame on the Greek Authorities for the tragic death of dozens of refugees whose bodies were found on the coastline of Ayvalik and Dikili on the 5th of January 2016."

Mr. Ambassador also mentioned that the Hellenic Coast Guard Headquarters categorically denied any allegations on the matter and sent us their statement. Here is the rest of his letter:"Contrary to these allegations, the international community has repeatedly recognized the efforts being made by the Greek Authorities to ensure the safety of all persons attempting the hazardous journey by sea from the Turkish coasts to the Greek islands and to meet their immediate needs, in spirit of solidarity and humanity.

Sincerely,

Kyriakos Loukakis"

We are publishing the ambassador's letter in order to respect the right to reply and retort. In the past, we received another letter from Ambassador Loukakis on the refugee crisis as well. On Nov. 30, 2015, we responded to it in the article: "Watchful eyes of the world," by İbrahim Altay. The article says that the letter in question was addressed to the Turkish media en masse rather than Daily Sabah in particular.

A similar case applies in this instance as well. When we look at Daily Sabah's article on the matter, none of the criticism of the ambassador applies, and other than giving statistical information on the route of refugees, Greece is only mentioned in the following paragraph: "Both Turkey and Greece struggle to cope with the surge of refugees. The Coast Guard constantly patrols the long stretch of the coast in search of refugees and their smugglers, just like their Greek counterparts who are looking to intercept migrants before they reach the islands."