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 On May 4, Bilkent's School of Applied Languages hosted one of Turkey's veteran female journalists, Nur Batur within the scope of the course entitled Language of Journalism in the Translation and Interpretation Department. She started in the field in 1976 at a very young age. For the last 33 years she has experienced much success, reporting on domestic and foreign politics for Tercüman, Milliyet, and Hürriyet newspapers, and working as a representative for both Hürriyet and CNN Turkey in Athens, Greece. Beyond being a journalist, she took an administrative role as Hürriyet's Ankara representative.
In 1986, 1987 and 1989 she was chosen as Journalist of the Year by the Turkish Journalists Association and in 1994 was nominated for the Announcer of the Year award. She has written three books published by Doğan Kitap: Yürekten Gülerek Yürüdüm in which she told of her experiences as a Turk, a journalist and a woman in Athens; Yeniden Yaşasaydım, a biography of Rauf Denktaş; and Benazir Bhutto'nun Bitmeyen Hikayesi. She is currently writing for Sabah newspaper and teaching journalism classes at Gazi University.
Batur spoke about the development of Turkish journalism while discussing her own experiences. She also touched on the issue of freedom of press in Turkey on the occassion of the anniversity of Freedom of Press Day. According to statistics, Turkey ranks 101 out of 184 countries when it comes to freedom of the press. In Europe, Turkey and Italy rated lowest on the list. Despite this ranking, Nur Batur is optimistic and has hope for the future, saying that “even being compared with Italy, an EU country, is a good sign.”
A.Sinem Kesik
(MAN/IV)
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