Students Learn Rights Journalism
In the last day of the “From School To The News Room” (OHO) program arranged by IPS Communication Foundation, the journalist candidates conducted a workshop with İpek Çalışlar, Tuğrul Eryılmaz, Füsun Özbilgen, Murat Çelikkan as consultants.
In the workshop with communication department graduates from 16 universities in Turkey and Cyprus, the participants evaluated the front page news and pictures of newspapers Sabah, Hürriyet, Birgün, Taraf and Yeni Şafak from the perspectives of rights violations and professional ethic code.
OHO participants turned theory into practice
In accordance with the critiques, the students discussed how a front page could be prepared around the principle of rights journalism and they prepared their own front pages using the news from the five newspapers mentioned above.
What kind of newspaper?
First of all, they picked news and pictures they can use to form their own agendas from the agendas of these newspapers and formed their own page layouts. They made changes in the news and pictures with rights violations, taking into consideration the principles of rights journalism.
They prepared three newspapers named “Tellal” (Towncrier) , “Yeni Düzen” (New Order) and “OHO” by writing the headlines and spots of their front pages.
They rewrote the problematical news they found in the five newspapers from the perspectives of human rights, democracy and being at equal distance to the sides. These news pieces were “The soldier exchange in Israel”, Termination of the female attendants at İncirlik [where there is an US military base]”, “Indian children win the right to have education”, “ Strip search of the visitors at the Silivri Prison”, Turkish Airlines workers are terminated because of smoking”, which
Tellal: “AKP is not to be closed, but what about DTP?”
Özbilgen and her group prepared the newspaper Tellal. The newspaper presented in its headline the news titled “Ergenekon Manual” and in its subheading “Rights Violations In Prisons” and “Do Not Close AKP”, which included the added part “What About DTP?”
The other news pieces on the front page were “Painful Step In The Road To Peace”, “Exploitation Of Labor In İncirlik Base” and “Poor Children Win The Right To Education”.
New Order: “Illegal Search In Prison”
Çalışlar and her group prepared the newspaper New Order”. This newspaper presented in its headline the news “Ergenekon Plan With Documents” and in its subheading “Do Not Close AKP.” The other news pieces on the front page were “200 Dead For 2 Israeli Soldiers”, “Illegal Search In Prison”. They described using a picture of a father with his son instead of a woman in the news piece “Yağış” (Rain) as a reaction against the widespread representation of woman in the media.
OHO: “İncirlik Nannies Are Willing To Work Without Insurance”
The newspaper OHO, which started with Tuğrul Eryılmaz and ended with Murat Çalikkan, chose the expression “Definitely Independent” as its slogan.
This newspaper, which appeared with the headline “There is something for everyone in Ergenekon’s bag”, had in its front page news pieces such as “Good News From The Rapporteur To The AKP”, “Psychological Violence At Workplace”, “İncirlik Nannies Are Willing To Work Without Insurance”, “A Black And White Love Story”.
Collective Harmony
Istanbul Bilgi University Faculty Esra Ercan Bilgiç said in the evaluation of the day that the products were appropriate examples of rights journalism and that the discussions that took place in the preparation stage did reflect positively on the newspapers by resulting in mutual accommodations.
Furthermore, Çalışlar said, “The students worked in harmony, discussing eagerly. Özbilgen commented, “I saw that everyone looked at the news with a common eye at the end of the workshop.” Çelikkan added, “It was important that the participants realized there was no one truth; there was a collective harmony.”
At the end of the five-day program, OHO participants received their certificates from the hands of the academicians and journalists, after the cocktail prepared for them. Following a dinner together, the potential journalists danced until they dropped to the view of the Golden Horn, the famous estuary on the northern side of the Old City in Istanbul, bidding farewell to each other at the end…until they meet again. (NV-CU/EZÖ/TB)