Strategy and mission
The media landscape in Turkey is overcrowded by a large number of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations, as well as online media with a very different signature. Sometimes they take a very critical stand about the establishment. However, as soon as they focus on controversial issues such as the military, the secular state of Turkey and the indivisibility of the Turkish nation they risk to infuriate the Turkish authorities. Not only reporters from progressive media face repression. Journalists of Islamic media, publications of minority groups and the mainstream press are at risk as well. Numerous court cases against editors, reporters and publishers have started and many of them face imprisonment.
Targets
Röportaj wants to intermediate between reporters in Turkey and their Dutch counterparts. As a documentation and expertise centre it offers background information about developments and legislation that define the borders of press freedom in Turkey. Moreover, Röportaj supports and facilitates Dutch journalists, parliamentarians and representatives of delegations before and during trips to Turkey. She organizes debates and conferences in order to inform journalists as well as the Dutch public opinion.
Furthermore, Röportaj wants to raise awareness concerning press freedom and freedom of speech in Turkey. She aims to widen the discussion about human rights and press freedom in Turkey, partly in the context of the negotiations about Turkish membership of the European Union.
Target groups
1. Journalists in the Netherlands: columnists, correspondents, representatives of editorial boards of the written as well as the audio-visual press, online publications and representatives of relevant schools (universities as well as vocational training), branch organisations and opinion leaders that give statements about Turkey.
2. The ambition is to stimulate awareness amongst the population - notwithstanding their origins or political and religious beliefs - companies and ngo’s that have ties with Turkey.
History
On 8. January 1996 Metin Göktepe, reporter for daily Evrensel, was beaten to death by police in Istanbul. The wave of protests that followed also affected the Netherlands. A small group of journalists rose to the occasion and founded Röportaj. After numerous programs and activities the foundation kept a low profile from the year 2000 onwards. The assassination of journalist and publisher Hrant Dink in January 2007 was reason to re-activate the foundation.
The mission and strategy of Röportaj, as well as the position of the press in Turkey are some of the subjects in the brochure ‘Media landscapes in Turkey, from Metin Göktepe to Hrant Dink'. Click here for a download.
