Ayşe Önal (born 1955) is a
Turkish journalist and writer. A former editor of ''
Nokta'', in 2000 she moved to London and became foreign correspondent for
Kanal 7
Kanal 7 is a Turkish Free-to-air nationwide Islamic TV channel established and on 27 July 1994. It has a terrestrial broadcast licence, and it is also available throughout Turkey via satellite. It airs Indian, Pakistani and Korean dramas. The ch ...
, before moving to ''
Akşam
''Akşam'' (''Evening'') is a Turkish newspaper founded in 1918, owned by Zeki Yeşildağ's Türk Medya Grup (T Medya Yatırım San. ve Tic. AŞ.) since 2013. In 2013 it had a circulation of around 100,000.
History
''Akşams founders in 1918 inc ...
'' and
Show TV
Show TV is a Turkish free-to-air national television channel, established in 1991 by Erol Aksoy, Dinç Bilgin, Haldun Simavi and Erol Simavi, owned by the Can Holding.
History
The channel replaces Cine5's now-defunct frequencies, and it was ...
in 2003.
[ Her best known book is ''Honour Killing: Stories of Men Who Killed'' (2004, Turkish, 2008 English).]International Women's Media Foundation
The International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF), located in Washington, D.C., is an organization working internationally to elevate the status of women in the media. The IWMF has created programs to help women in the media develop practical so ...
Fifteen Years of Courage: Ayse Onal
Career
Önal worked as a psychological counselor at a juvenile prison in the early 1980s, but was fired when the government found out she was "kind of a leftist". She joined the weekly '' Nokta'' in 1984 as a political reporter,[womensenews.org 18 May 2009]
Onal Found Remorse Among Turkish 'Honor' Killers
/ref> and became its editor-in-chief. In this position she was attacked with a firearm in February 1994, together with a ''Nokta'' correspondent.
Onal graduated with a degree in Psychology in 1978, and worked for treatment of condemned children in prison for three years. After being forced to leave due to her different opinion, she started her journalism life in Nokta Weekly.
Önal was one of the first people to write about JİTEM
Jandarma İstihbarat ve Terörle Mücadele or Jandarma İstihbarat Teşkilatı (abbr. ''JİTEM'' or ''JİT''; English: "Gendarmerie Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism" or "Gendarmerie Intelligence Organization") is the intelligence department of ...
, for Dinç Bilgin's '' Ateş'' newspaper on 2 July 1994. Önal had learned about it from Veli Küçük
Veli Küçük (born 9 May 1944)Today's Zaman, 16 June 2009Ultranationalist Ergenekon suspect is of Armenian origin, magazine reveals/ref> is a retired Turkish brigadier-general. He is thought to be the founder of the JİTEM intelligence arm of t ...
after being introduced to him through MIT spy and fellow journalist, Tuncay Güney. Önal and Küçük's meeting did not go well, and Önal vowed to write about it. She followed through, and was promptly fired, along with nineteen of her coworkers. In 1994 Turkish Hizballah published a death threat against her, leading Önal to go into hiding in Cyprus for three months.[
From 1995 to 1997, she hosted a discussion show ''Minefield'' on ]Kanal 7
Kanal 7 is a Turkish Free-to-air nationwide Islamic TV channel established and on 27 July 1994. It has a terrestrial broadcast licence, and it is also available throughout Turkey via satellite. It airs Indian, Pakistani and Korean dramas. The ch ...
, which brought together Jews, Armenians and Turks five days a week in a way not previously seen on Turkish television.[ In 2000, she moved to London and became foreign correspondent for ]Kanal 7
Kanal 7 is a Turkish Free-to-air nationwide Islamic TV channel established and on 27 July 1994. It has a terrestrial broadcast licence, and it is also available throughout Turkey via satellite. It airs Indian, Pakistani and Korean dramas. The ch ...
, before moving to ''Akşam
''Akşam'' (''Evening'') is a Turkish newspaper founded in 1918, owned by Zeki Yeşildağ's Türk Medya Grup (T Medya Yatırım San. ve Tic. AŞ.) since 2013. In 2013 it had a circulation of around 100,000.
History
''Akşams founders in 1918 inc ...
'' and Show TV
Show TV is a Turkish free-to-air national television channel, established in 1991 by Erol Aksoy, Dinç Bilgin, Haldun Simavi and Erol Simavi, owned by the Can Holding.
History
The channel replaces Cine5's now-defunct frequencies, and it was ...
in 2003.[
The ]International Women's Media Foundation
The International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF), located in Washington, D.C., is an organization working internationally to elevate the status of women in the media. The IWMF has created programs to help women in the media develop practical so ...
, which gave her a Courage in Journalism Award in 1996, said of her in 2008: "Onal has been a controversial journalist most of her life. She was on the hit list of both the revolutionary left and the Islamic radicals. Her early kudos came from reports on prison abuse of children, but she went on to cover the first Gulf War, the war in Bosnia and the evolving political situation of the Kurds. She rattled the Turkish government by many reports about corruption and in the mid-1990s officials put her on a black list, which effectively barred her from employment in any media controlled by the government. That “embargo” against her was lifted right before she got the Courage Award but she was still seen as almost unemployable."[
Önal's daughter ]Şafak Pavey
Şafak Pavey (born 10 July 1976) is a Turkish diplomat, columnist and politician. She was a member of the Turkish Grand National Assembly from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) representing Istanbul Province. She is the first di ...
was elected to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey
The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( ), usually referred to simply as the GNAT or TBMM, also referred to as , in Turkish, is the Unicameralism, unicameral Turkey, Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by ...
in 2011.
Awards
* International Women's Media Foundation
The International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF), located in Washington, D.C., is an organization working internationally to elevate the status of women in the media. The IWMF has created programs to help women in the media develop practical so ...
Courage in Journalism Award 1996[
* fourteen Turkish National Press Awards][hbv-awareness.com]
Experts
/ref>
Bibliography
* ''Honour Killing: Stories of Men Who Killed'' (2004 Turkish, 2008 English, 2013 Japanese) .
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Onal, Ayse
1955 births
Living people
Turkish journalists
Turkish former Sunni Muslims
Turkish atheists