Successful Finish of OHO 2010

In a ceremony held on 15 June, the IPS Communication Foundation issued the certificates to the participants of the 2010 training program "From the Classroom to the Newsroom" (OHO) held in Istanbul from 10-15 July.

The ceremony was attended by the OHO educators Prof. Dr Özden Cankaya, journalists Murat Nişancıoğlu, Ali Öz, Ahmet Tulgar and Ahmet Şık, bianet writer and health rights activist Mustafa Sütlaç and the Secretary General of the IPS Communication Foundation, Ertuğrul Kürkçü.

The dinner was the ceremonial conclusion after five days of intense work on rights journalism, ethic and polical responsibilities of journalists. The participants also got an insight into the daily work of journalists and the struggle for rights with vistis at bianet and other broadcasting institutions and rights organizations.

"A Different Newspaper"

On the final day of the program, the journlist candidates had prepared their own newspapers in three groups supervised by journalists Ahmet Şık, Ahmet Tulgar and Murat Çelikkan.

The students working together with Çelikkan called their paper "A Different Newspaper". Spokesman Hasan Yıkıcı explained that while preparing the front page, the graduates aimed at "an anti-militarist that newspaper that is focussing on rights, makes the voice of different people heared and stands up against othering".

The group advised by Tulgar gave their newspaper a Turkish-Kurdish title: "Hayat- Jîyan" (Life in Turkish and Kurdish). Participant Hıdır Tok, editor-in-chief, pointed out, "Our newspaper is bilingual. We wanted to address Kurdish people as well since Kurdish is the second most widespread language in Turkey. Our anti-militarist newspaper gives importance to peace and tries to get away from the male dominated and homophobic language of the mainstream media".

The group around Şık worked out a newspaper entitled "Up-to-Date". Melda Frıatoğlu, spokeswomen of the group, said that the name of the paper reflects its contents.

Five days full of information and practice

The efforts of OHO program co-ordinator Çiğdem Öztürk were appreciated with a warm applause during the ceremony.

The participants of the 2010 OHO program worked on topics such as "Pursuits of a new reporting", "Starting journalism", "Personal rights and responsibilities of journalists", "News ethics and the necessity of rights journalism", "Rights organizations and the media" and "Where is the news?"

Beyond lots of theory, the young journalists were able to take a close look at the practice of journalism and visited the Media and Communication Workers Union (Haber-Sen), the LGBT organization Lambdaistanbul, the Child Study Unit of Bilgi Universtiy, the Istanbul office of the UN High Commission, and the nation-wide Cumhuriyet newspaper, the news channel NTV, bianet and TRT Istanbul Radio.

The OHO 2010 program was supported by the Swedish National Development Agency (SIDA) and included presentations and workshops held by journalists Tuğrul Eryılmaz, Berat Günçıkan, Ali Öz, Işın Eliçin, Devrim Sevimay, Efnan Atmaca, Murat Çelikkan, İrfan Bozan, Gunnar Kohne, Ahmet Tulgar, Murat Nişancıoğlu and Hilmi Hacaloğlu; academics from the field of communication Prof. Dr Özden Çankaya, Prof. Dr Sevda Alankuş, Prof. Dr Gülgün Erdoğan Tosun, Prof. Dr Nurçay Türkoğlu, Doç. Dr İncilay Cangöz, Doç. Dr Sevilay Çelenk, Doç. Dr Nilüfer Timisi, Assoc. Prof. Dr Esra Arsan and Füsun Özbilgen; lawyer Fikret İlkiz and human rights advocator Özlem Dalkıran.

The following participants received the OHO certificate:

Aysun Eyrek, Burcu Ballıktaş, Ceren Salmanoğlu, Elif İnce, Enver Argunhan, Ersin Sarıalioğlu, Fatma Sönmez, Hıdır Tok, Melis Bayman, Bekir Avcı, Cudi Kaan Okmeydan, Edip İbrahimoğlu, Fatma Öçkomaz, Esra Koçak, Elif Gülay Keskin, Halit Bingöllü, Hasan Yıkıci, İrşadi Dal, Melda Fıratoğlu, Murat Baş, Mustafa Birol, Mutlu Ulubaş, Nihan Kahraman, Özge Ayık, Pınar Bulut, Sarphan Uzunoğlu, Sema Azeri, Semih Yıldız, Tayibe Önel, Uğur Bayram, Ulaş Emir Mutlu, Yağmur Çıklakalyoncu, Yunus Keleş, Zehra Çelenk, Vartan Estukyan. (ÇT/TK/VK)