Erol Önderoğlu

Last updated • 2 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Erol Önderoğlu
Erol Onderoglu - re-publica 2014.jpg
Erol Önderoğlu (2014)
Born1969 (age 5455)
NationalityTurkish-French
CitizenshipFrench
Occupation(s)Journalist, representative of Reporters Without Borders (RSF)

Erol Önderoğlu (born 1969) is a Turkish-French journalist, and a representative of Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontières, RSF). [1] [2] In 2016, he was arrested by the Turkish government for his work supporting Ozgur Gundem , a Kurdish newspaper, and accused of supporting terrorists; his arrest was widely criticized as suppression of freedom of the press. [3] [4]

Contents

Early life and professional career

Önderoğlu spent his childhood in France, and is fluent in French. He met his wife, who is also of Turkish descent, in France; the couple have a son. Önderoğlu is a French citizen. [5] He began campaigning for the RSF, which monitors and promotes freedom of the press, after the torture and murder of Metin Göktepe in police custody in 1996. [5] [1] He has been a representative of RSF in Turkey for approximately 20 years. [6] [5] He has also served as the monitoring editor for Turkish press agency Bianet, [7] for whom he began working in 1997. His work for Bianet included quarterly reports on free speech in Turkey. [5] In 2018, he was a member of the jury for the Metin Göktepe journalism awards. [8]

Prosecution

In June 2016 Önderoğlu was arrested after attending a meeting for Ozgur Gundem , a Kurdish newspaper, on World Press Freedom Day. [1] Journalist Ahmet Nesin and scholar Sebnem Korur Fincanci (head of the Turkish Human Rights foundation), who participated in the meeting with Önderoğlu, were also arrested, [9] and were accused of spreading "terrorism propaganda" in favor of the Kurdistan Workers' Party. [1] [3] The three men had taken turns symbolically taking over the leadership of the newspaper to protest its harassment by the government. [3] The Turkish government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the newspaper of spreading Kurdish "terrorism propaganda" and shut it down in August 2016. It is one of dozens of news organizations that have been forced to close by the government since the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt, while the Cumhuriyet , the country's oldest mainstream newspaper, had its offices raided and its editors arrested. [1] [2] The number of newspapers shut down by the government has been estimated as 170. [4]

Önderoğlu was in jail for 10 days, and is scheduled to be tried in June 2017: the prosecution is asking for a 14-year prison sentence. He is among 150 journalists who have been jailed or are facing trials, for reasons varying from "terrorism propaganda" to "insulting the president". [1] Reacting to the arrest of Önderoğlu, Nesin, and Fincanci, officials of the European Union stated that the arrest went "against Turkey's commitment to respect the fundamental rights, including freedom of media", and that it went against the Turkish government's obligations with respect to its effort to obtain EU membership. The trial of the three activists was also criticized by human rights organizations Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. [3]

Recognition

In 2019, Önderoğlu received the Four Freedoms Award for freedom of speech from the Roosevelt Foundation; the foundation cited his "tireless and persistent dedication to defend the freedom of speech and expression". [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Censorship in Turkey</span>

Censorship in Turkey is regulated by domestic and international legislation, the latter taking precedence over domestic law, according to Article 90 of the Constitution of Turkey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gültan Kışanak</span> Turkish politician (born 1961)

Gültan Kışanak is a Kurdish journalist, author and politician from Turkey. Kışanak was born in Elazığ in 1961. Her family is originally from Dersim. She is a former member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and Head of Municipality of Diyarbakır. She has been imprisoned since October 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eren Keskin</span>

Eren Keskin is a Kurdish lawyer and human rights activist in Turkey. She is the vice-president of the Turkish Human Rights Association (İHD) and a former president of its Istanbul branch. She co-founded the project "Legal Aid For Women Who Were Raped Or Otherwise Sexually Abused by National Security Forces”, to expose abuses happening to women in Turkish prisons. She has been arrested, imprisoned, and the object of numerous lawsuits in relation to her human rights activities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aslı Erdoğan</span> Turkish author and human rights activist

Aslı Erdoğan is a prize-winning Turkish writer, author, human rights activist, and columnist for Özgür Gündem and formerly for Radikal, ex political prisoner, particle physicist. Her second novel has been published in English, and eight books translated into twenty languages.

Özgür Gündem was an Istanbul-based daily Turkish language newspaper, mainly read by Kurds. Launched in May 1992, the newspaper was known for its extensive reporting on the Kurdish-Turkish conflict, and was regularly accused of making propaganda for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Its editors and staff have frequently been arrested and prosecuted, which resulted in multiple publication bans. Since April 1994, the publication continued under different names until Özgür Gündem was relaunched in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metin Göktepe</span>

Metin Göktepe was a Kurdish photojournalist who was tortured and murdered in police custody in Istanbul on January 8, 1996.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metin Göktepe Journalism Awards</span>

The Metin Göktepe Journalism Awards was established in April, 1998 in honor of daily Evrensel correspondent Metin Göktepe who was brutally killed under police custody. The awards are given to journalists who uphold the integrity of the profession by standing up to pressure and obstacles.

Günlük (Daily) was a Turkish newspaper known for its writing about Kurdish issues. It was published from 2009 to 2011.

Özgür Ülke was a Turkish newspaper established on the 28 April 1994, following the shut down of Özgür Gündem and other newspapers which reported on the Kurdish Turkish conflict by the Turkish government. It was closed down on the 2 February 1995, and 220 of its 247 issues were confiscated.

Turkey's media purge after the failed coup d'état on July 15, 2016 resulted in the shutdown of at least 131 media outlets and the arrest of 117 journalists – at least 35 of whom have been indicted for "membership in a terror group".

Doğan Güzel is a Kurdish Turkish-born cartoonist. He is best known for his satirical comic strip Qirix.

Erol Zavar is the former editor of Odak magazine, a political prisoner, and a poet from Turkey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ayhan Bilgen</span> Turkish politician

Ayhan Bilgen is a journalist, politician and former mayor of Kars from the Peoples' Democratic Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yaşar Kaya</span>

Yaşar Kaya was a Turkish-Kurdish politician and publisher of the pro-Kurdish newspaper Özgür Gündem. Together with authors like Ismail Besikçi and Musa Anter, he was a co-founders of the Kurdish Institute of Istanbul in 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abdurrahman Gök</span> Journalist

Abdurrahman Gök is a journalist and the author of the photographs which documented the murder of Kemal Kurkut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melis Alphan</span> Turkish journalist and author (born 1978)

Melis Alphan, is a Turkish journalist and author known for her women's rights activism and her fashion journalism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Şebnem Korur Fincancı</span> Turkish medic and professor

Şebnem Korur Fincancı is a Turkish medic, former professor, and current president of the Turkish Medical Association (TBB). She is an internationally renowned expert on human rights and a member of the Turkish Human Rights Association (TİHV). In Turkish popular culture she is being called to be the "Turkish female villain".

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Lowen, Mark (13 April 2017). "Erdogan's Turkey". BBC . Archived from the original on 23 April 2017. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  2. 1 2 Wirsching, Daniel (11 April 2017). "Türkei: Erol Önderoglu: "Schon heute gelten wir als Terroristen"". Augsburger Allgemeine (in German). Archived from the original on 27 April 2017. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Haftbefehl gegen Mitarbeiter von Reporter ohne Grenzen" (in German). Die Zeit. 20 June 2016. Archived from the original on 26 October 2016. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  4. 1 2 Minoui, Delphine (25 November 2016). "Turquie : Erol Onderoglu, la liberté d'expression bâillonnée". Le Figaro (in French). Archived from the original on 13 March 2017. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Erol Önderoglu, Turkey's tireless free speech advocate". RSF. 21 June 2016. Archived from the original on 27 April 2017. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  6. "Erol Onderoglu". UNESCO. 10 April 2017. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  7. Kazem, Halima (6 June 2015). "Crackdowns on Turkish Media Ahead of Elections". Al Jazeera . Archived from the original on 27 April 2017. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  8. "21'inci Metin Göktepe Gazetecilik Ödülleri'ni kazananlar belli oldu | Evrensel.net". Evrensel. 31 March 2018. Archived from the original on 31 March 2018. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  9. "Turkey arrests raise further concerns over press freedom". The Guardian. Associated Press in Istanbul. 21 June 2016. Archived from the original on 11 February 2017. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  10. "Erol Önderoğlu Laureate Freedom of Speech Award 2018". Four Freedoms. Roosevelt Foundation. Archived from the original on 28 July 2020. Retrieved 28 July 2020.