The 40 journalists, the majority of whom were women, had an opportunity to share their experiences, to recognize the value of women's journalism, and to learn about the Civil Law, the new Penal Code, and international agreements from the standpoint of women's rights and crimes against women.
The journalists, who came from Ordu, Artvin, Çorum, Giresun, Bulancak, Şebinkarahisar, Kastamonu, Ereğli, Ünye, Samsun, Zonguldak, Trabzon and Kars, expressed the need for such meetings to happen more frequently and for the laws in question to be applied urgently and effectively.
Gülbahar: The media must research violations of women's rights like a prosecutor
At the opening conversation presented by BİA2 Assistant Coordinator Fügen Uğur, lawyer Hülya Gülbahar, one of the founders of the Women's Platform on the Civil Law and Turkish Penal Code campaigns, gave a presentation on "National and International Arrangements Concerning Women's Rights."
Gülbahar emphasized the importance of economic factors, saying that "In spite of women's working in Turkey, the owners of assets and property are always men...In Eastern Anatolia, 93.5% of women have no income of their own. In the Aegean region, 76.6% of women have no income or social security."
At the seminar, Gülbahar gave examples of violence towards women and argued that "honor crimes" against women often had economic reasons. She said it was up to the local press to report the causes of violence against women, saying that journalists "must research the true reasons behind honor crimes like prosecutors."
Tanrıöver: The media gives women either sexual or traditional roles
Dr. Hülya Tufan Tanrıöver, a member of the Communitcations Faculty of Galatasaray University, showed by interpreting the news published in the national press on women and women's issues that the media's choice of language is very important,
In a presentation for the "Media and Women" seminar, Dr. Tanrıöver spoke about the subjects of "The Media and Women's Representation in the Media" and "Violations of Women's Rights in the Media." She said, "The media portrays women according to clear stereotypes," either in the traditional roles as as good wives and mothers, or as sexual objects, sexual and racial stereotypes, and as victims of crime.
Tanrıöver discussed the importance of lanuage in shaping the media's representations of women. She pointed out that the means by which women are represented in the media are very important, and said that the first of those means is language, the second is subject, and the third is the choice of pictures. On radio and television, sound and image are also very important. Tanrıöver emphasized that the language that we use matters because some word choices can have veiled meanings or hidden implications. As one example, she discussed the debate over the use of two different terms for women, "kadın" and "bayan," pointing out that the former was more appropriate as an equivalent term to "man," because the meaning of "bayan" is closer to "Mrs." or "lady."
Feminist Leaders: More information on women's organizations needed
On Sunday, Selen Doğan, the general coordinator of the women's rights organization Uçan Süpürge (Flying Broomstick), and Beyhan Demir, the director of publishing for the magazine Pazartesi, shared their perspectives with the reporters attending the seminar.
Doğan, discussing Uçan Süpürge's goals and the things it has done so far, explained that its recent "Building Bridges" project reached 64 provinces. "In the last year, we have reached 473 women's societies. In this time, the number of women's organizations in Turkey has grown, especially in Ankara, where an increase of fity percent has been seen." However, she said, "we saw in the provinces we visited that governors and mayors are not informed of the laws." Doğan also addressed the absence of information on women's organizations, and said that this lack causes lost time.
Beyhan Demir discussed Pazartesi's role since 1995 as a "feminist" women's magazine, publishing women's news with women's perspectives and a founding staff composed entirely of women. "We write news with a perspective, we are on the side of women. We take the side of the repressed and outcast. For this reason, Pazartesi has an ideological side. Without giving incorrect information about the news, we show a path, we put an interpretation on it,' she said. Demir, who said that honor was used as a pretext for violence against women, said "Honor is an exuse. Honor is men's strongest excuse. As women become stronger, the problem of violence appears in front of them."
Legal issues facing journalists in Turkey
After Demir's talk, the BIA Legal Support Desk was introduced by Meriç Eyüboğlu, a lawyer from the Istanbul Bureau and the Legal Support Desk. Eyüboğlu expressed that in spite of the law, women, children and other groups are often harmed by means of publications or broadcasts. She discussing the need to pay attention to the arrangements found in the Press Law and the new Penal Code concerning women and those under the age of 18.
Eyüboğlu shed light on Article 19 of the Press Law, "Influence on Opinion," Article 20 " Encouragement of Sexual Assault, Murder, and Suicide," and Article 20, on "Non-Disclosure of Identity" regarding perpetartors of victims of crime who are under the age of 18, and also dicussed parallel articles of the new Turkish Penal Code that could restrict the freedom of information or expression.
Mater: the importance of women's journalism
BIA Project Coordinator Nadire Mater, who explained the Bianet site to the seminar participants, discussed the situation of women's journalism in Turkey and around the world.
Mater, a journalist who directed last year's "Rights-Based Reporting" training project, said that after the Ordu seminar, "Women's Rights and Women's Rights-Based Journalism" training seminars would take place in Eskişehir, Çanakkale, İzmir and Antalya. Mater said that in November, a series of similar training seminars on "Children's Rights Journalism" would begin, and would also visit six cities.
Mater said that phrases like "women's rights" or "children's rights" reporting were new both in Turkey and around the world, and that fundamentally journalism surely needed to include these two subjects, but it didn't , and while covering would be able to become the subject of violations per se?
"For this reason, there is a need to especially emphasize women's and children's issues. Fundamentally, in the last two years, we already knew that from the newspapers that we followed that local newspapers in Southern and Southeastern Anatolia gave a lot of weight to women's issues, but we found a chance to see more newspapers here. Really, we are face to face with an exciting example to be compared with the mainstream media. We know that this can be much better."
Mater, in a presentation titled "Women-Focused Journalism," pointed out that only thirty percent of journalists in Turkey are women, and said that in 2005, the proportion carrying yellow press cards (which are given to accredited journalists in Turkey) had fallen from 20.5 to 15.9 percent. Drawing attention to the scarcity of women in management positions in the mainstream media, Mater said, "In the mainstream media there are no female general directors of publishing. There are no women on the High Board of Radio and Television. Do you remember how many women journalists there are in news programs on television?'
Mater, revealing that the situation of women journalists around the world is not very bright either, said that in spite of higher levels of education, the proportion of women in the media was only around 30-35%, and that women's earning levels were usually lower than men's. Mater added that most women who did have management positions in the media worked in magazine, culture, life, family, women's, or children's sectors, and pointed out that "Women in journalism are often subjected to sexual harassment in the workplace. According to a study, the proportion in Greece is 46%."
Expressing that the scope of women-focused journalism was not limited to issues only concerning women, Mater explained that it was absolutely necessary for women's perspectives to be applied to news dealing with all areas of life. "We will treat women as leaders of opinion, and seek their thoughts on politics and work life. In our reporting, if we seek views from five people, we will work to ensure that at least two of them are women. We will follow and report on women's organizations, their platforms, and their activities," she said.
The two-day training program concluded with an evaluation session and suggestions from the participant journalists. (EO/EA/YE)
