TRANSCRIPT:
I’m Begum Donmez Ersoz. I cover the White House and the U.S. Congress for Voice of America’s Turkish Service.
The U.S. government’s sudden shutdown of VOA in March came just days before Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a key rival of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had been detained on corruption allegations. His arrest sparked anti-government protests throughout Turkey.
VOA has always been a factual, objective source of news in the country, where an increasingly repressive government controls most of the national media. But VOA was silenced when the Turkish people needed us the most, as police detained more than 2,000 for speaking their minds.
For me, a longtime journalist, the shutdown of VOA has been not only a professional blow, but a personal one. I was pregnant with twins when I found out I was going to be laid off from VOA. Two days after I received notice, my babies were born 11 weeks early. They’re still in intensive care.
This is a time of uncertainty, not only for myself and my colleagues, but also for our audience. A permanent shutdown of VOA would create an information vacuum for those who want to know the truth.
Published
Donmez Ersoz is a reporter and simultaneous interpreter for VOA's Turkish Service. She covers a vast area from U.S. politics to international diplomacy and foreign affairs. Her focus has mostly been Turkey-U.S. relations, NATO and U.S. foreign policy. She frequently appears on affiliate TV networks in Turkey to report on those issues. Before joining VOA, Begum worked for CNN TURK for 12 years, where she began her journalism career as an interpreter and editor at the height of the war in Lebanon in 2006.