Istanbul, Turkey

Bilge is a producer and reporter at TRT World, Turkey’s public broadcasting station.

Most of her work is for the digital division. Her articles before she started the fellowship focused on refugees in Turkey, the war in Syria war and the protests and other problems in Iraq. 

Here’s a link to her author’s page at TRT

An excerpt from her application essays: 

 “Fearless writers have shown that the documentation of stories from any region have the capacity to touch people living in other parts of the world — even if they share no similarities. In my opinion, this happens when there is excellence in storytelling and integrity.”

Bilge was accepted to work at the Los Angeles Times before the pandemic caused the suspension of the fellowship.

Bilge’s fellowship was sponsored by the Patrick and Janna Stueve Foundation.

Portraits of Alfred Friendly journalism fellows on Friday, March 20, 2020, at the Reynolds Journalism Institute Hillary Tan/Missourian