Turkey: CFWIJ Celebrates Kurdish Journalism Day
Location: Turkey
Date: April 22, 2021Available in: 🇹🇷 Türkçe
Today marks the 123rd anniversary of Kurdish Journalism Day. 123 years have passed since Mikdad Midhat Bedirhan's first Kurdish newspaper published in Cairo. However, Kurdish journalists continue to face pressures within the political climate.
Over the years, the Kurdish media has been systematically suppressed by the Turkish state, and this pressure continues. Policies of intimidation are applied to journalists working at Jin News, which is the only news agency where women reporters work, attempting to end their professions through day-to-day detentions. Especially in Turkey, women journalists doing their job at any moment despite continuing threats they face.
The Coalition For Women In Journalism (CFWIJ) closely monitors the cases against Kurdish women journalists. Since the beginning of 2021, we have recorded at least 52 cases against Kurdish women journalists alone. Until now, almost 20 female journalists appeared in court over their coverage or social media posts. At least four female journalists were detained and three were attacked in the field while covering the news. Two female journalists were released after 175 days in detention.
CFWIJ’s Ceren İskit spoke to Jin News’ Beritan Canözer and Mesopotamia Agency reporter Berivan Altan about the challenges that Kurdish women journalists face and Kurdish Journalism Day in Turkey.
This year marked the 123rd year of Kurdish Journalism Day. What are the impacts of Kurdish media existing in a country like Turkey?
Berivan Altan (B.A.): Kurdish media in Turkey allowed the torture, mistreatment and rights violations against the people live especially south-easthern, become more visible. Since the 1990s, Kurdish journalists have been subjected to violence by Turkish state and paid the price of the pressure endured to Kurdish people and reached these days. Being a journalist in an environment, which is opposed to state-led journalism and unbiased media in Turkey, was always difficult but it is even more difficult to Kurdish journalists. Today, the violence or rights violated in the villages of south-eastern are not to be covered anymore by Turkish state, because of Kurdish journalists, Turkey and also the world can question the incidents with suspicion. The helicopter incident in Van was the most solid example of this. If our friends had not covered that story, we would not have learned that civilians were killed or tortured there.
As a female journalist, how do you value the existence of women in the media? What has the Kurdish media's women's-oriented journalism changed the element of it or not changed in this sense?
Beritan Canözer (B.C.): We are constantly criticizing mainstream media on this matter. Journalism is done with a completely mansplaining mentality. We cannot explain this problem only by comparing the number of women and men working in the media environment. Sometimes a woman alone can achieve great work and change the newsroom where 40 men work. However, some of our female colleagues unfortunately prefer to acquiesce this rather than change. Headlines such “Jealous man killed his lover / ripped his daughter for honor” cannot be thrown in a newsroom with woman-oriented journalism. Kurdish media's women-oriented journalism has changed many things at this point. Because women journalists working in the Kurdish media confronted this masculine language and mansplaining perspective, they continue to fight against it and change it with their news.
B.A.: Being a woman journalist or being just only a woman in our industry is a battleground for us against the masculinity codes imposed on us. It was not easy for us to exist in the media or to even exist with our own identity. It is another point to have a female employee on the ground, and it is another to value the work that women do with their own identity. We have proved our existence in the industry field by paying a high price against the understanding of men imposed on them and against the perspective of women cannot. We started to see that the truth is being questioned more where women work more.
I have a question for you Beritan. Why was Jin News, formerly Jinha, founded, a news agency that only has women journalists? Can you tell us? Why was such a newsroom needed? What do you think the women's news agency has changed the media?
B.C.: There was a need for a women-lead media against that was completely patriarchal. The aim was to continue the legacy of Kurdish women journalists such as Gurbetelli Ersöz and Ayfer Serçe, who struggled within the Kurdish press. A women's agency was established in order to increase their struggle and women's journalism in the general press. And since the day it was founded, JINHA has added a very different and completely woman-oriented perspective to the language of the media. The most interesting aspect was not using the surname of our colleague. Since the last name also represents the male race, we used only our name as a signature of our stories. It continues in the same way at JINNEWS right now. The effort and visibility of women journalists who are in the background in the general media increased with JINHA. From the photographer to the cameraman, from the driver to the accounting, there were women in all roles, and it continues just like that at JINNEWS.
It also changed the way male journalists perspective to women journalists. In the field, female journalists who were under pressure every time with thoughts of such "men shoot the best view", "unable to do this" or "screen face". However we are now holding cameras, carrying tripods and chasing news on the field. It was a different and interesting situation not only for journalists but also for news sources. News sources that did not trust us at the beginning, did not want to confirm us in any information, and were constantly prior male journalists. Now they started to talk to us one-on-one after a while. When it comes to journalism, one of the first agencies that come to mind in the region was JINHA. That's why we were closed, of course. Because, they wanted to intimidate all women.
Currently, many journalists, men and women, are remaining behind bars. Many journalists working in opposition media organizations are also prosecuted for their coverage or social media posts. What are the challenges faced by Kurdish women journalists in this context?
B.C.: Yes, unfortunately, every day a colleague of ours is either being tried, detained, appearing at the courthouse or prevented from reporting in the field. While journalism is at a crucial level all over the world, we are trying to be convinced that journalism is a crime here. The news we publish are considered as ‘criminal’, our profession is not recognized in the news we follow. Rather than that we are seen as ‘activists’ here. Then we have to defend ourselves in court because of the news we covered. However, we are journalists and "journalism is not a crime."
News sites are blocked, a live broadcast ban is imposed on the news, and there is already pressure in the field. In other words, every way is attempted to prevent us from doing our job. Especially when you are a woman, what you experience in the field can be very different. Insults you hear, words you hear, or physical contact can reach the level of harassment. Because when they are a Kurdish, woman and a journalist, they have the perspective of "everything is possible".
When choosing this job as a Kurdish woman journalist, you start with difficulties during some transformation processes in your own family. As a woman, you have to convince your family that you can move to another city to do your job. Besides, you have to deal with the difficulty of working with your male colleagues in the field, and yes, another dimension in the state that does not know you. While dealing with all of these elements on the field, your ethnicity and being a woman actually makes you the first target. Rather than what kind of stories you cover or what you report, you are targeted first with your identity. If the news you report to expose the reflected policies of the government, and the Kurdish ethnicity is written on your ID, that means you are already potentially a "terrorist". That's why dozens of our friends are in prison today. Every news you cover about the solution of the Kurdish relations, torture, and mistreatment is actually enough reason for them to see you as a "terrorist".
Is there anything you wish to add more?
B.C.: I celebrate the day of all Kurdish media and my colleagues. The oppressive mentality, unfortunately, has not changed since 1898, but the faith, will and struggle of Mikdad Midhat Bedirhan continues in the same way.
B.A.: Today we celebrate Kurdish Journalism Day. As a Kurdish journalists, we reached this day by paying a lot of price. We are still paying it. But neither our friends before us nor we did not step back from what we do. Because we really do our profession based on society and revealing the truth and we will continue to do our job under any circumstances.
Thanks for sparing your time with us.
B.C .: Thank you very much, too.
B.A .: Thank you.
The Coalition For Women In Journalism closely monitors the incidents in Turkey with great concern. Since March 8, Women's Day, police violence against women journalists increasingly continues in the country. As the coalition, we urge the Turkish state to provide a free environment for journalists. Following the news is our most fundamental democratic right to report. We demand the immediate release of our detained colleagues. Journalism is not a crime. Journalism cannot be prevented.
If you have been harassed or abused in any way, and please report the incident by using the following form.