Within the scope of December 10 World Human Rights Day, the Department of Journalism at the Faculty of Communication, Üsküdar University, in cooperation with the New Media and Journalism Division and the Journalism Club, organized a panel titled “Rights-Based Journalism in Türkiye: Challenges and Responsibilities. “The panel addressed the structural problems faced by rights-oriented journalism in Türkiye, ethical responsibilities, and possible solutions.
The event was held at the Fuat Sezgin Conference Hall on the South Campus of Üsküdar University and was moderated by Assoc. Prof. Ceren Saran Doğan, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Communication.
Speakers included Prof. Süleyman İrvan, Head of the Department of Journalism at Üsküdar University, freelance journalist Eda Narin, and BİANET reporter Hikmet Adal.
Prof. Süleyman İrvan: “Making rights violations visible is a core responsibility of journalism”
Speaking at the panel, Prof. Süleyman İrvan emphasized that rights-based journalism has not yet become sufficiently widespread in Türkiye, both in practice and in academia.
Evaluating rights journalism through three core principles, İrvan stated that this approach aims to make rights violations visible, adopt a rights-based perspective in news production, and avoid creating new rights violations while reporting.
Referring to statistics from the European Court of Human Rights, Prof. İrvan noted that the high number of applications from Türkiye reflects the scale of rights violations in the country. He stressed the importance of conveying these violations to the public through accurate and responsible journalism.
He also underlined that journalism departments should train students who are ethically responsible and aware of rights-based reporting.
Eda Narin: “The language of news should not create new victimization”
Freelance journalist Eda Narin stated that the lack of sustainability and job security, especially in freelance journalism, is one of the main challenges of the profession. She noted that click-driven media practices distance journalism from a rights-based approach and added that the daily news quota imposed by the Press Advertising Agency on online news platforms negatively affects content quality.
Highlighting the decisive role of language in rights-based journalism, Narin stressed that method-oriented details should be avoided, particularly in reports on femicides and sexual violence. Such details, she said, can lead to new forms of victimization.
“In rights-based journalism, the language of news should not reproduce victimhood or cause further harm to the subject,” she said.
She also emphasized the importance of gender-sensitive language, noting that wording used in news stories has a direct impact on survivors.
Hikmet Adal: “Self-censorship pushes journalists to write incompletely”
BİANET reporter Hikmet Adal addressed the structural and legal challenges faced in rights-based journalism. He noted that the risk of self-censorship frequently arises in reporting on rights violations, pushing journalists either not to write or to write incompletely.
Adal stated that institutions practicing rights-based journalism, such as BİANET, face serious challenges in terms of economic sustainability, yet continue their work driven by idealism. He also referred to in-depth discussions on news language, explaining that word choices can have legal consequences, which is why reporting processes require extreme caution. Adal added that investigations launched against journalists due to reports from earthquake-affected regions and on rights violations, as well as the implementation of the disinformation law, pose serious threats to journalism.
At the end of the panel, Prof. Süleyman İrvan and Journalism Club Vice President Kevser Yılmaz presented certificates of appreciation to the speakers.
The program concluded with a group photo session.