Bianet (acronym for tr, Bağımsız İletişim Ağı, lit="Independent Communication Network") is a Turkish

press agency A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and All-news radio, radio and News broadcasting, television Broadcasting, broadcasters. A news agency may ...

based in

Beyoğlu Beyoğlu (, ota, بك‌اوغلی, script=Arab) is a district on the European side of İstanbul, Turkey, separated from the old city (historic peninsula of Constantinople) by the Golden Horn. It was known as the region of Pera (Πέρα, meani ...

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

. Its focus is on

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

and it is mainly funded by a Swedish organization. It was established in January 2000 by journalists around , former representative of

Reporters Without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; french: Reporters sans frontières; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with the stated aim of safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its advocacy as found ...

, and left-wing activist

Ertuğrul Kürkçü Ertuğrul Kürkçü (born 5 May 1948) is a Turkish politician, socialist activist and the current Honorary President of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) as of 22 June 2014 and Honorary Associate of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of ...

and is tied with Inter Press Service. It is mostly funded by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

through the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR).

Erol Önderoğlu Erol Önderoğlu (born 1969) is a Turkish-French journalist, and a representative of Reporters Without Borders (''Reporters Sans Frontières'', RSF). In 2016, he was arrested by the Turkish government for his work supporting '' Ozgur Gundem'', a ...

served as the monitoring editor for Bianet for several years. His work for Bianet included quarterly reports on free speech in Turkey. In collaboration with EIDHR and

KAOS GL KAOS GL, short for Kaos Gay and Lesbian Cultural Research and Solidarity Association ( tr, Kaos Gey ve Lezbiyen Kültürel Araştırmalar ve Dayanışma Derneği), founded in 1994, is one of the oldest and largest LGBT rights organisations in Turke ...

, an association that focuses on

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

rights, Bianet organized workshops concerning

gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...

specific language in journalism in various cities in Turkey between 2016 and 2018.

Controversies

Access to the Bianet website was briefly blocked in Turkey on 16 July 2019, after it was included on a list of 136 websites and social media accounts that were deemed a threat to national security. The block was lifted the following day, after protests, and the authorities said that Bianet had been blocked by mistake.

Notes and references

External links

Bianet website
(Turkish, English, Kurdish) Companies based in Istanbul News agencies based in Turkey Organizations established in 2000 {{Turkey-media-stub