The people's newspaper BirGün turned 21: With resistance, persistence and pride...

News Centre

Today, we leave behind another year. As in every year, this one too was marked by pressure, lawsuits, and threats. Our writers and editors were detained. We received fines and prison sentences. Our news reports were blocked from access. But we did not give up. We continued to be the voice of the people. We neither feared nor backed down. We kept writing the truth, reporting the people's news, and defending reality. Wherever there was resistance and struggle, we continued to be its voice.

BİRGÜN WILL NEVER BE SILENCED

We believed that every report we made was a voice rising against injustice. As that voice grew stronger, it turned into awards and honours through the pens of young journalists of all ages. They dedicated those awards to murdered women, silenced journalists, workers who lost their jobs, coups, and students who resist.

TRUTH CANNOT BE CONTAINED BY CENSORSHIP

Timur Soykan has spent years exposing the darkest corners of society—organised crime, dirty money, child abuse, and mafia-state ties. He was awarded News of the Year by the Contemporary Journalists Association for his report “Scandalous Wedding.” But that very morning, as he was preparing to receive the award, the police knocked on his door. He was taken into custody on allegations of “blackmail” and “threats.”

Speaking about the incident and our 21st anniversary, Soykan said: “As BirGün, we have received prestigious awards for investigative journalism. One of them was the Sedat Simavi Journalism Award, which we won for our report exposing the bribery network within the judiciary. But there was an ironic truth at the time: The report had vanished. It had been blocked from access by court orders based on absurd justifications. We had the award, but our report had been erased from the internet.

The second incident was equally striking: the Contemporary Journalists Association deemed our ‘Scandalous Wedding’ report worthy of an award. I was supposed to go to Ankara to collect it but was detained instead. And the allegations against me had no basis whatsoever. A colleague accepted the award on my behalf.

These two incidents show the state of press and expression freedom in Turkey. Yet we do not take a step back despite all the pressure. Because we know: truth cannot be contained by censorship. Journalism is not a crime.”

Beyond Soykan, many of our colleagues at BirGün were also honoured with awards this year. İsmail Arı received the Uğur Mumcu Investigative Journalism Award for his article titled “A Public Foundation Was Looted with Fake Invoices.” Deniz Güngör uncovered scandals in private hospitals and was awarded the Health Reporting Award by the Turkish Journalists Association for her article “They Lied to the Judiciary.” İlayda Kaya received special mention for “Once Again, Women Fall Victim to Your System.” Sibel Bahçetepe earned an investigative journalism award for her report questioning the scales of justice. Tuğçe Çelik was recognised by the Turkish Agricultural Engineers Association for her media contributions to agriculture in Turkey. Havva Gümüşkaya received the Press Award from the Chamber of Agricultural Engineers. Gökay Başcan was awarded the Urban Planning Press Award by the Chamber of City Planners. Özgür Çeliktürk, one of our page designers, was commended in the internal page design category. Sarya Toprak received the Women’s News Award from TGC for her piece “The Illegal Drug Game in Sexual Assault Cases,” and the Internet Investigative News Award from the Istanbul Medical Chamber for “The Government Fuels Anti-Abortion Sentiment: Our Stories Are Shared.”

BirGün’s front page from 6 February titled “Is Anybody Out There?” was chosen as the Headline of the Year among 90 national newspapers and magazines by MediaCat, which evaluated the best headlines and covers alongside experts from various fields.

Our 25 November headline for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, “We Want to Live”, and the 2 February headline “There’s No Good News to Report” were also included in the list. Altogether, BirGün headlines made up half of the year’s best front pages.

THEY TRIED TO INTIMIDATE US

On 5 June 2024, Halkbank filed a compensation lawsuit totalling 1 million TL against birgun.net and BirGün newspaper due to the publication of reports titled “550 Million Credit from Halkbank to the Mafia” and “Credit from Halkbank to the Mafia.”

Our Chair of the Board, İbrahim Aydın, was fined a total of 127,610 TL in separate cases on the grounds of “not publishing a correction in the proper form.”

On 8 February 2025, birgun.net Publishing Coordinators Uğur Koç and Berkant Gültekin, along with birgun.net Managing Editor Yaşar Gökdemir, were taken into custody on charges of “targeting individuals involved in counter-terrorism” after publishing news of Sabah newspaper’s visit to the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor Akın Gürlek. Gültekin was released after his statement to the prosecutor. Koç and Gökdemir were released under judicial control.

On 19 March, following the ruling bloc’s coup attempt against the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and the protests that began in Saraçhane, our reporters Ebru Çelik and Deniz Güngör were tortured by police while covering the demonstrations. Despite stating they were members of the press, they were beaten.

Police removed Çelik’s mask and sprayed pepper gas directly in her face, then continued to kick her while she was on the ground. Güngör was left with bruises across her body from plastic bullets.

20 YEARS BECAME A DREAM

This year, the 20-year journey of our newspaper turned into A Dream. The documentary Bir Düş (A Dream), screened last year, was the story of two decades of collective effort. The journey that began at Cemal Reşit Rey in İstanbul travelled to villages in the Black Sea region, from Ankara to Eskişehir, and beyond the borders of Turkey to Europe.

In total, it reached over 35,000 readers at 67 locations. The documentary made people smile and broke hearts. Every screening ended with applause. Executive Producer and BirGün TV Broadcasting Director Emre Yıldırım said: “Bir Düş is not just a documentary; it is the story of those who defend the public’s right to information, of free press, and of solidarity. BirGün’s 20-year journey was made possible by the unwavering support of its readers. This documentary is a hopeful tale of how independent journalism, when united with the people’s desire to know the truth, can become a powerful force. The story of BirGün is the story of all of us.”

WE WERE THERE IN EVERY RESISTANCE

At the strike tents, in front of protests, at courthouse doors, at campus gates we stood together.
We reported the news; our readers amplified our voice. Our headlines became slogans, banners, and sometimes laments. For 21 years, BirGün has not just been a newspaper, it has been a line of resistance, a lifeline of hope.

On 12 July in Elazığ, when miners working at Eti Krom A.Ş. walked off the job for a life of dignity, we stood with them with our cameras, our pens, our hearts. In Çatalca, İstanbul, we stood shoulder to shoulder for six months with the 146 Polonez workers who were dismissed under the pretext of Code-46 for joining the Tekgıda-İş union through mud, cold and thirst in front of the factory, and in their homes, at their dinner tables, during night watches, in courthouse corridors. The slogans of women workers became our headlines.

At MERSEN in Kocaeli, among the industrial dust, we stood by metalworkers resisting for 100 days. Every worker standing tall against the imposition of misery made BirGün’s heart beat louder.

In the fields and plains, as farmers who couldn’t sell their produce cried out, we didn’t just witness, we put their shout “We can’t make ends meet!” on our front page. We stood behind their calls of “Government, resign!”

We did not forget the nine miners buried underground in İliç. When another 187 workers were dismissed from the same mine in August, we once again questioned this country’s justice and this system’s conscience. We carried their tears, their rage, and their rightful demands to our pages.

When Fernas Mining workers marched from Soma to Ankara, we marched in their shadow. Every step they took was a notch against the government’s injustice.

In Gebze, when Hitachi Energy workers went on strike against MESS’s miserable offer, we resisted with them 2,000 hearts strong. We announced their victory to the nation with the headline “We Won!”

When 76 lives were lost in the fire at Kartalkaya, our pages turned black. Wherever children, workers, and the poor were torn from life, we held our pens like blades to demand accountability. And now, since 19 March, as protests began and filled the squares with youth at the forefront, their voices echoed in BirGün. From İstanbul to Ankara, from İzmir to every corner of the country, the uprisings were reflected in our pages.

BirGün turns 21 today. It has never had a boss, nor leaned on capital. But it was never without an owner. Because the true owner of this newspaper is the reader who has examined every line for years. Every worker, every woman, every student, every farmer who marched arm in arm with us in resistance is the true owner of this newspaper. We lean on the people.