Önderoğlu spent his childhood in France, and is fluent in French. He met his wife, who is also of Turkish descent, in France; the couple have a son. Önderoğlu is a French citizen.[5] He began campaigning for the RSF, which monitors and promotes freedom of the press, after the torture and murder of Metin Göktepe in police custody in 1996.[5][2] He has been a representative of RSF in Turkey for approximately 20 years.[6][5] He has also served as the monitoring editor for Turkish press agency Bianet,[7] for whom he began working in 1997.