Workshop on human rights-based approach to journalism with P24 in Gaziantep

On October 26 and 27, FNF Turkey held a Human-rights based journalism seminar with P24 in Gaziantep. Together, journalists from Anatolia, Istanbul and Syria discussed best practices of journalism and approaches to topics like LGBTI-rights, environmental issues, hate speech and migration. Among the participants were well-known and renomated journalists such as Fatih Polat from Evrensel, Mehveş Engin from Artı Gerçek, İrfan Aktan from Gazete Duvar and Çiçek Tahaoğlu. 

These four speakers brought to Gaziantep were chosen based on their work and complementarity: Faith Polat has managed a newspaper focusing on labor rights for years, Mehveş Evin is one of the leading journalists to call for a rights-based journalism and has worked on environmental issues for many years, İrfan Aktan has worked on the Kurdish issue and reported on hate speech during his entire journalistic career while Çiçek Tahaoğlu is perhaps the most experienced Turkish journalist on gender rights-based reporting. They transmitted the participants valuable and interesting best practice of journalism. 

During the workshop, FNF and P24 collaborated with a new local association based in Gaziantep, “Uluslararası Gazetecilik ve Hak Odaklı Medya Derneği” (International Journalism and Rights-Based Media Association) to reach journalists on the field as well as outside of Gaziantep. Journalists from five different cities other than Gaziantep eventually attended the workshop: Adana, Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Mardin and Nizip.

Up to 20 people from Gaziantep attended the workshop in two days, including students, young journalists, Syrian journalists and some seasoned reporters.