Erol Önderoğlu (born 1969) is a Turkish-French journalist, and a representative of

Reporters Without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; ; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organisation, non-governmental organization headquartered in Paris, which focuses on safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its a ...

(''Reporters Sans Frontières'', RSF). In 2016, he was arrested by the

Turkish government The Government of Turkey () is the national government of Turkey. It is governed as a unitary state under a presidential representative democracy and a constitutional republic within a pluriform multi-party system. The term government can me ...

for his work supporting '' Ozgur Gundem'', a

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...

newspaper, and accused of supporting terrorists; his arrest was widely criticized as suppression of

freedom of the press Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic Media (communication), media, especially publication, published materials, shoul ...

Early life and professional career

Önderoğlu spent his childhood in France, and is fluent in French. He met his wife, who is also of Turkish descent, in France; the couple have a son. Önderoğlu is a French citizen. He began campaigning for the RSF, which monitors and promotes

, after the torture and murder of

Metin Göktepe Metin Göktepe (; April 10, 1968 – January 8, 1996) was a Kurdish photojournalist who was tortured and murdered in police custody in Istanbul on January 8, 1996. Life Metin Göktepe was born to a Kurdish family in Sivas on April 10, 1968, in ...

in police custody in 1996. He has been a representative of RSF in Turkey for approximately 20 years. He has also served as the monitoring editor for Turkish press agency

Bianet Bianet (acronym for ) is an Independent news agency based in Beyoğlu, Istanbul. Focused on human rights in Turkey it is mainly funded by a Swedish organization. Bianet was established in January 2000 by journalists around , former representative ...

, for whom he began working in 1997. His work for Bianet included quarterly reports on free speech in Turkey. In 2018, he was a member of the jury for the Metin Göktepe journalism awards.

Prosecution

In June 2016 Önderoğlu was arrested after attending a meeting for '' Ozgur Gundem'', a

newspaper, on

World Press Freedom Day The United Nations General Assembly declared May 3 to be World Press Freedom Day or just World Press Day, observed to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press and remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the righ ...

. Journalist Ahmet Nesin and scholar Sebnem Korur Fincanci (head of the Turkish Human Rights foundation), who participated in the meeting with Önderoğlu, were also arrested, and were accused of spreading "terrorism propaganda" in favor of the

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or the PKK, isDespite the PKK's 12th Congress announcing plans for total organisational dissolution, the PKK has not yet been dissolved de facto or de jure. a Kurds, Kurdish militant political organization and armed ...

. The three men had taken turns symbolically taking over the leadership of the newspaper to protest its harassment by the government. The Turkish government of

Recep Tayyip Erdogan Recep is a Turkish name deriving from the Arabic name Rajab. It may refer to: People Surname * Aziz Recep (born 1992), German-Greek footballer * Sibel Recep (born 1987), Swedish pop singer Given name * Recep Adanır (1929–2017), Turkish fo ...

accused the newspaper of spreading Kurdish "terrorism propaganda" and shut it down in August 2016. It is one of dozens of news organizations that have been forced to close by the government since the

2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt In the evening of 15 July 2016, a faction within the Turkish Armed Forces, organized as the Peace at Home Council, attempted a coup d'état against state institutions, including the government and president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. They attempted ...

, while the ''

Cumhuriyet ''Cumhuriyet'' (; English: "Republic") is the oldest up-market Turkish daily newspaper. It has been described as "the most important independent public interest newspaper in contemporary Turkey". The newspaper was awarded the ''Freedom of Press ...

'', the country's oldest mainstream newspaper, had its offices raided and its editors arrested. The number of newspapers shut down by the government has been estimated as 170. Önderoğlu was in jail for 10 days, and is scheduled to be tried in June 2017: the prosecution is asking for a 14-year prison sentence. He is among 150 journalists who have been jailed or are facing trials, for reasons varying from "terrorism propaganda" to "insulting the president". Reacting to the arrest of Önderoğlu, Nesin, and Fincanci, officials of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

stated that the arrest went "against Turkey's commitment to respect the fundamental rights, including freedom of media", and that it went against the Turkish government's obligations with respect to its effort to obtain EU membership. The trial of the three activists was also criticized by human rights organizations

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

and

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...

Recognition

In 2019, Önderoğlu received the

Four Freedoms Award The Four Freedoms Award is an annual award presented to "those men and women whose achievements have demonstrated a commitment to those principles which US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt proclaimed in his ''Four Freedoms speech'' to the Un ...

for freedom of speech from the Roosevelt Foundation; the foundation cited his "tireless and persistent dedication to defend the freedom of speech and expression".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Onderoglu, Erol Living people Turkish journalists Turkish people imprisoned on terrorism charges French people imprisoned abroad Journalists imprisoned in Turkey Date of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) 1969 births Turkish emigrants to France