The Chamber of City Planners of the Turkish Union of Engineers' and Architects' Chambers (TMMOB), handed out "City Planning Media Awards" as part of activities organized for the November 8 World City Planning Day.

Bianet also received an award for contributing to the city culture and urban consciousness, for bringing urban problems onto agenda and for providing scientific arguments.

Bianet's award was handed to Ayliz Baskin, the deputy project coordinator of the Network for Monitoring and Covering Media Freedom and Independent Journalism (BIA2).

The awards were granted to a total of 19 media organizations and journalists from local and national media. The general board of the Chamber of City Planners evaluated the coverage of city planning and urbanism and decided who deserved an award.

Journalists from local and national media organizations met at the award ceremony held after the first-day sessions of the November 8 World City Planning Day 28th Colloquium, titled "Changing-Evolving City and Region," at the Middle Eastern Technical University.

Bekir Coskun from the Hurriyet newspaper gave a short speech after receiving his award and drew attention to the importance of evaluating the coverage of city planning, and supporting it through the granting of awards.

Nuray Yilmaz of the Turkish Radio and Television (TRT), the presenter of the "Gezelim Gorelim" (Let's Travel and See) program, said there was not enough media coverage of city planning, sheltering and city life.

Following are journalists and media organizations that were granted awards:

CNN Turk - Gurkan Zengin; Evrensel - Ihsan Caralan; NTV - Tayfun Talipoglu; SKY Turk - Serdar Akinan; Yeni Adana Newspaper - Cetin Remzi Yuregir; Cumhuriyet newspaper's Ankara reporter Mustafa Cakir and Izmir reporter Serdar Kizik; bianet; TRT 2 "Kent ve Kultur" (City and Culture) programı - Hasan Akgun, TRT Gezelim Gorelim program Nuray Yılmaz; YON FM - Murat Taylan; Yeni Adana newspaper - Seyit Ali Gul; KLAS TV (Samsun) - Suleyman Gencel, Hurriyet newspaper's Ankara chief Yasar Sokmensuer; Izmir TV - Uzeyir Sever; Bursa Kent newspaper; Hurriyet - Bekir Coskun; NTV Radio "Halkın Sesi" (People's Voice) program- Serdar Kucukay. (OG/BB(EA/YE)