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Student News Portal Has Been Launched To Trumpet The Voice Of Students All Around Turkey: The Voice of University!

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Freedom of expression’s being restricted in all spheres in Turkey is not only shrinking the civic space day by day but also affecting the very struggle of individuals for their rights. In relation to that, media as an essential part of civic space also has its fair share of that process by the presence of censorship mechanisms in it as well as the growing cases of forbidden contents and news websites. While the voice of pro-government media is rising, oppositional voices are being prohibited, news reports about right violations are being removed and relevant individuals are facing up to legal sanctions. Citizen journalism, the name of which we have heard more in recent times, has also become more visible owing to all those existing oppressions. Thus, we have built the Voice of University News Portal with the purpose of promoting news reporting skills of students, making archives together with continuous newsfeed and making sustainable studies assisted by various workshops on human rights-based news-making.

Our primary aim is to create a sustainable platform in which students as the subjects of violations can make their voices heard and inform the public of the happenings on campuses and also, by doing workshops, experienced journalists can convey their knowledge to students who want to advance their knowledge as well as skills.

The leading subject of the news portal which is built in this regard will be students participating in student clubs and societies in universities situated in different cities in Turkey. Under the guidance of our association and journalist consultant, a student club or society from a different city will determine the news content as well as the subject matters for writings and produce content every month. While students produce human rights-based pieces and news items, they will also stand in solidarity with student accounts providing up-to-date newsfeed.

The workshops in which student clubs are involved will be run by journalists adopting a rights-based approach to working. The contents of the workshops include news editing, rights-based news-writing, data protection and investigation skills, creating video content for online news, gender sensitive journalism and, lastly, news verification.

unises.net is a project of the Civic Space Studies Association. Civic Space Studies Association thanks to PEN Norway and Consulate General of Sweden Istanbul for their support. The contents in the website are under the sole responsibility of the publishers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the supporting institutions.