Bianet (acronym for ) is an Independent

news 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 ma ...

based in

Beyoğlu Beyoğlu (; ) is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Istanbul Province, Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 9 km2, and its population is 225,920 (2022). It is on the European side of Istanbul, Turkey, separated from the o ...

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

. Focused on

human rights in Turkey Human rights in Turkey are protected by a variety of international law treaties, which take precedence over Legal system of the Republic of Turkey, domestic legislation, according to Article 90 of the 1982 Constitution of Turkey, Constitution. ...

it is mainly funded by a Swedish organization. Bianet was established in January 2000 by journalists around , former 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 ...

, and left-wing activist Ertuğrul Kürkçü and is tied with

Inter Press Service Inter Press Service (IPS) is a global news agency headquartered in Rome, Italy. Its main focus is news and analysis about social, political, civil, and economic subjects as they relate to the Global South, civil society, and globalization. His ...

. It is mostly funded by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

through the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR). Erol Önderoğlu served as the monitoring editor for Bianet for several years. His work for Bianet included quarterly reports on free speech in Turkey. A 2022 study said that it partly followed the principles of

citizen journalism Citizen journalism, also known as collaborative media, participatory journalism, democratic journalism, guerrilla journalism, grassroots journalism, or street journalism, is based upon members of the community playing an active role in the pro ...

. It is active on

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

. In collaboration with EIDHR and KAOS GL, an association that focuses on

LGBT rights in Turkey Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in Turkey face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBTQ residents, though the overall situation is considered to be less repressive when compared to most other LGBT people and ...

, Bianet organized workshops between 2016 and 2018 in various cities concerning

gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...

specific language in the

mass media in Turkey The mass media in Turkey includes a wide variety of domestic and foreign periodicals expressing disparate views, and domestic newspapers are extremely competitive.

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.

References

{{Reflist Companies based in Istanbul News agencies based in Turkey Organizations established in 2000

Controversies

See also

References