Yavuz Baydar

Yavuz Baydar has been a journalist for 35 years. In December 2013, Baydar co-founded the independent media platform, P24, Punto24, to monitor the media sector of Turkey, as well as organizing surveys, and training workshops. Currently, he writes opinion columns, in Turkish, Ozgur Dusunce and Haberdar, on Turkey’s domestic and foreign policy issues related to Turkey, and media matters. His opinion articles appeared at the New York Times, the Guardian, Süddeutsche Zeitung, El Pais, The Arab Weekly, - and Al Jazeera website. Baydar blogs with the Huffington Post, sharing his his analysis and views on Turkish politics, the Middle East, Balkans, Europe, U.S-Turkish relations, human rights, free speech, press freedom, history, etc. Turkey’s first news ombudsman, beginning at Milliyet daily in 1999, Baydar worked in the same role as reader representative until 2014. His work included reader complaints with content, and commentary on media ethics. Working in a tough professional climate had its costs: he was twice forced to leave his job, after his self-critical columns on journalistic flaws and fabricated news stories. Baydar worked as producer and news presenter in Swedish Radio &TV Corp. (SR) Stockholm, Sweden; as correspondent for Scandinavia and Baltics for Turkish daily Cumhuriyet between 1980-1992, and the BBC World Service, in early 1990's. He studied informatics, cybernetics and, later, journalism in the University of Stockholm. Baydar served as president of the U.S. based International Organizaton of News Ombudsmen (ONO) in 2003. He was a Knight-Wallace Fellow at University of Michigan in 2004. Baydar was given the Special Award of the European Press Prize (EPP), for 'excellence in journalism', which he shared with the Guardian and Der Spiegel in 2014. He was also awarded the Umbria Journalism Award, Italy, in March 2014. Baydar recently completed an extensive research as a Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School on self-censorship and growing threats over journalism in Turkey.