Botan International Honored with 40th Anniversary Press Freedom Award; Dedicates Prize to Reporters Without Borders (RSF)

The Southeastern Journalists Association (GGC)—a 49-year-old organization with nearly 400 members—has been honoring journalism through its annual awards for four decades.

To mark the 40th anniversary of these awards, the GGC decided to present a special "40th Anniversary Press Freedom Award" to an institution.

We are deeply honored to be chosen for this award. I received it on behalf of our team, but this milestone belongs to our ten full-time colleagues—Wahdet Uçar, Ekrem Yıldız, Semiha Yıldız, Berıl Caymaz, Gülistan Korban, Yonca Sarsılmaz, Engın Ölmez, Kübra Sağır, Laleş Ongun, and myself.

Beyond our core team, over 100 trainers, writers, camera operators, photographers, and editors have poured their hearts and hard work into bringing us to where we are today.

I am equally proud to announce that we are dedicating this award to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), in the name of Laetitia Chesseron.

Looking back at Botan International’s six-year journey:

• 19 International Projects: We have successfully carried out 18 international projects. Our 19th project, currently underway with a team of 28 people, is implemented in partnership with the Digital Media Association and supported by the German Embassy.
• Kurdish Media Workshops: We have hosted 102 workshops training 520 participants, with 25 instructors sharing their expertise.
• Psychosocial Support: In partnership with specialist Dr. Erkan Kakdaş, we provided a year-long mental health support program for 11 journalists coping with job-related trauma.
• Free Studio Access: Over the past four years, 19 organizations and 55 independent journalists have recorded nearly 2,000 broadcasts in our open-access studio.
• Botan Times & Digital Content: 56 authors have contributed over 4,000 opinion pieces to Botan Times. We have also produced 1,100 YouTube video broadcasts and 357 podcast episodes.
• Independent Journalists Network: 407 journalists have registered within our network.
• Diplomatic Visits: Delegations from various embassies—including those led by the German Ambassador, the Dutch Ambassador, and the Deputy Head of Mission of the British Embassy—have visited Botan International at least 50 times.
• Advocacy & Panels: We have hosted, moderated, or participated in at least 30 panel discussions on freedom of expression.

Why We Dedicated This Award to RSF

In 2020, after completing journalism workshops in English at Oxford University and in Turkish at the Journalists' Union of Turkey (TGS) and Bianet/Atölye BİA in Istanbul, I decided to create Kurdish-language journalism workshops.

To make this vision official, I needed to set up a company. Despite the pandemic, I used my earnings from international news reporting to cover the founding costs. But we also needed a physical space. My mother officially owned our family home in the village, so I asked her if I could use the room where she kept her baby goats. She was the very first person to believe in my dream, and she handed me the keys.

My goal was to establish the first Kurdish journalism training institution in Turkey's history, without violating a single law. I knew formal schooling faced legal restrictions, but running "training activities" and creating self-study guidebooks was completely legal.

I submitted project proposals to four different international donors. Every single one was rejected. It was hard to get people to believe that a project like this could succeed. The fifth organization I reached out to was Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

RSF did something different. They invited me to an online meeting to present my idea. They had scheduled 20 minutes, but they listened to me for 45 minutes. During that call, Laetitia Chesseron told me they could support us with €7,000 for a 20-day trial project, and that we would see where things went from there.

RSF was the first institution to give me a chance. In those 20 days, 15 instructors/trainers taught 15 workshops. A team of five staff members and an intern documented the lessons daily in English and Kurmanji. Our book editor turned those notes and essays into a self-study guide for digital journalism, while our designer worked on the layout and our training specialist set up the strategy. There were 23 of us working together.

After 20 days, we had produced two books, completed 15 workshops, recorded hours of video, published over 50 articles in Kurmanji and English, and accounted for every single detail in our final report.

We dedicated our very first guidebook to Laetitia Chesseron, and another to the renowned French Kurdologist Roger Lescot and Celadet Alî Bedirxan.

Looking back today, RSF—the first to believe in us—has stood by our side throughout these six years. RSF was the very first to place its trust in my idea of establishing the first Kurdish media training office in Türkiye’s state history, as well as the first supporter of Kurdish media training in the country's history. In 2023, RSF made Botan International one of its 12 permanent partners worldwide.

Laetitia Chesseron, whose personal dedication to keeping us afloat while upholding RSF’s vision and mission we will never forget, deserves this award as much as we do.

We are deeply grateful to have RSF in our journey.