CFWIJ delegation puts safety of women journalists in Turkey centre stage
TURKEY, Istanbul, December 16, 2019 — The Coalition For Women In Journalism organized a delegation around the safety of women journalists, in collaboration with the Turkey Journalism Syndicate (TGS) in Istanbul.
The session focused on the security issues that women journalists have to tackle in Turkey. CFWIJ Founding Director Kiran Nazish and Director Advocacy Sulome Anderson were joined by Gülfem Karataş and Şafak Timur of TGS Commission for Women and LGBTI.
The journalists shared their professional experiences of working in the field in Turkey, and discussed the different mobility and rights violations women journalists face here.
Kiran discussed the work that she has done as a journalist, and provided an overview of how women journalists work in the country. She pointed out the need for The Coalition, and discussed the different pieces of research that CFWIJ has produced in Turkey.
“We aim to identify major issues that women journalists face while they are doing their jobs,” Kiran said. She added, “In our recent survey with women reporters and editors in the country, we found that 62% women journalists face severe stress directly because of discrimination, lack of equity and lack of equal opportunity in the newsroom. This combined with the daily harassment they often have you faced while reporting on the ground often affects negatively on both their work and their personal health.”
Sulome shared her experience covering the Gezi Park movement as a foreign correspondent. “Unlike my local colleagues, I was able to avoid the subsequent media environment, which has become more and more difficult to work in. As always, those difficulties are felt most by women in this industry,” she added.“Unfortunately, according to statistics, Turkey currently jails more women journalists than any other government in the world. The Coalition for Women in Journalism works to advocate for these women and remind the world of their plight.”
TGS representatives Şafak Timur and Gülfem Karataş shared their experiences as well, highlighting the problems that they have faced in their work.
They discussed what it is like to cover national and politics beats for women journalists in Turkey. Şafak shared anecdotes from her work as a journalist, and her interactions — alongside those of her colleagues — with civilian sources, politicians and authorities. She also shared examples of how the press freedom landscape has evolved from bad to worse. “I have witnessed what happened to colleagues, from the beginning of Gezi protests to after the coup. for example, the end of 2015, Beritan Canözer was taken into custody and detained for ‘appearing too excited’ and imprisoned for more than 120 days. That kind of witnessing is discouraging.” she said.
Meanwhile, Gülfem Karataş discussed in detail the research that she developed at TGS to understand how women and LGBT members worked. “When we spoke to women journalists for our survey, we were asked them how they felt about reporting on violence and discrimination. Some of the participants stated that they felt alienated. They told us they were threatened with rape even by the police. Or that they had to keep a different phone number for sources than for their personal use to avoid messages at non work hours.” she said.
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The Coalition For Women In Journalism is a global organization of support for women journalists. The CFWIJ pioneered mentorship for mid-career women journalists across several countries around the world, and is the first organization to focus on the status of free press for women journalists. We thoroughly document cases of any form of abuse against women in any part of the globe. Our system of individuals and organizations brings together the experience and mentorship necessary to help female career journalists navigate the industry. Our goal is to help develop a strong mechanism where women journalists can work safely and thrive.
Follow us on Instagram @womeninjournalism and twitter @CFWIJ.
Our website is WomenInJournalism.org and we can be reached at <press@womeninjournalism.org>
