Tag: CPJ

  • Pro-Kurdish Reporter Sentenced to Jail in Turkey

    Pro-Kurdish Reporter Sentenced to Jail in Turkey

    NEW YORK—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the jail sentence handed to a journalist in Turkey and called on authorities to overturn the ruling on appeal, in a statement issued on March 13.

    CPJ condemned the jail sentence handed to a journalist in Turkey and called on authorities to overturn the ruling on appeal.

    A regional court in eastern Van province sentenced Murat Aydin, a reporter for the pro-Kurdish Dicle News Agency, or DİHA, to six years and three months in jail on charges of alleged membership in the banned Kurdistan Worker’s Party, or PKK, local press reported. Aydin denied the accusations and said he was being prosecuted in connection with his work. His lawyer, Halil Kartal, told CPJ that he would be appealing the verdict and that Aydin would not be jailed until the Supreme Court of Appeals had reviewed the case.

    Kartal told CPJ that prosecutors cited Aydın’s professional activities as evidence, including the journalist’s phone conversations with DİHA and other news outlets. In one, Kartal said, the reporter had relayed a statement from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, which holds 36 seats in Turkey’s parliament, to the pro-PKK satellite station Roj TV.

    “Turkey has the opportunity at this very important political juncture to do right by all its journalists,” CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney said. “The appeals court should overturn the politicized verdict against Murat Aydın. Reporting on Kurdish affairs is not a crime. We urge Turkish authorities to uphold the democratic values they espouse by releasing all jailed journalists and allowing the media to perform their vital role of informing the public without fear of reprisal.”

    Aydın was arrested in October 2011 and held in Bayburt M Type Prison until he was released in September 2012 after his first court hearing. Kartal told CPJ that Aydın was abused by police during his arrest and detention. Aydın said that authorities had focused exclusively on his journalism during the interrogations, according to an open letter he wrote that was published by the independent news portal Bianet while he was in jail.

    Turkey is the world’s worst jailer of journalists, according to CPJ research. At least 49 journalists were behind bars when CPJ conducted its worldwide prison census on Dec. 1, 2012.

    via Pro-Kurdish Reporter Sentenced to Jail in Turkey | Armenian Weekly.

  • Kurdish journalists, media workers released in Turkey

    Kurdish journalists, media workers released in Turkey

    Istanbul, February 11, 2013–The release of at least seven journalists and media workers from pretrial detention is a positive step toward restoring the press freedom climate in Turkey, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

    A court in Istanbul on Friday ordered the release pending trial of the individuals, who were imprisoned in December 2011 on charges of supporting and collaborating with the banned Union of Communities in Kurdistan, or KCK, and Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, according to news reports. The individuals still face prison terms if convicted of their charges and all have been banned from traveling outside Turkey, news reports said. Their trials, which began in September, are expected to resume in April, the reports said.

    The journalists who were released include Zuhal Tekiner, chairwoman of the board of the pro-Kurdish Dicle News Agency; Çağdaş Kaplan and İsmail Yıldız, both reporters for the agency; and Ziya Çiçekci, news editor for the pro-Kurdish daily Özgür Gündem, according to the BBC and other news reports. The court also ordered the release of Ömer Çiftçi, owner of the now-defunct pro-Kurdish opinion magazine Özgür Halk ve Demokratik Modernite, and Saffet Orman, another individual affiliated with the magazine, news reports said. Pervin Yerlikaya, an accountant for Özgür Gündem, was also released, the reports said.

    News reports did not identify a reason for the release of the journalists and media workers. International human rights and press freedom organizations have urged Turkey to halt prolonged detention prior to a court date.

    “We hope that this is the first step on the road to ending the practice of holding journalists in pretrial detention,” said CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney from New York. “Turkey, however, should honor its international commitments and heed calls from its international partners such as the European Union and stop jailing reporters for their work.”

    Turkey is the world’s worst jailer of journalists, according to CPJ research. At least 49 journalists were behind bars when CPJ conducted its worldwide prison census on December 1, 2012.

    For more data and analysis on Turkey, visit CPJ’s Turkey page here.

    via Kurdish journalists, media workers released in Turkey – Committee to Protect Journalists.

  • Conflating critics with terrorists in Turkey

    Conflating critics with terrorists in Turkey

    Conflating critics with terrorists in Turkey

    By Joel Simon and Bill Sweeney/CPJ Staff

    TURKEY-GOVERNMENT

    Erdoğan speaks at a meeting in parliament on Wednesday. (AFP/Adem Altan)

    The government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is quick to brand critics as “terrorists,” and that’s one of the main reasons that Turkey was the world’s worst jailer of the press when CPJ conducted its recent census of imprisoned journalists. This week, the prime minister and two pro-government newspapers applied the label once again to critics, illustrating the extremely difficult climate confronting any Turkish journalist who challenges official positions.

    Speaking at a parliamentary meeting on Wednesday, Erdoğan lashed out at commentators who criticize the policies of the Justice and Development Party, or AKP. “These types who are named columnists do not know their places when they criticize on TV, saying the AKP administration is behind the world in terms of democratization,” he said. “They say the EU is very much progressed. Progressed in what? We know how they shelter terrorists.” In October, the European Commission published a progress report on Turkey’s reform agenda that was critical of its press freedom record, among other things. Although EU membership remains on Ankara’s agenda, accession has moved in fits and starts due in part to concerns about Turkey’s press freedom and judicial record.

    Erdoğan’s comments came two days after two pro-government newspapers, Star and Yeni Akit, ran very similar stories that freely used the word “terrorist” in describing critics. The papers targeted our colleagues at Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which also concluded that Turkey is the world’s worst jailer of the press. Star accused RSF of “providing support to the members of the terrorist organization MLKP,” referring to the banned Marxist Leninist Communist Party. In particular, the papers said RSF was paying Necati Abay, longtime spokesman for the Platform of Solidarity with Arrested Journalists, a group that has tried to bring the plight of imprisoned Turkish journalists to light.

    Abay, who now lives in exile in Germany, has faced numerous criminal prosecutions over the years based on the unpopular political views he has expressed as a journalist. Abay said this week that while he is a member of RSF–just like thousands of journalists all over the world–he has never received financial support from the group. He also reiterated that he has no ties to the MLKP.

    Star also questioned the Committee to Protect Journalists. “It was confirmed that the lobby of outlaw terrorist organizations was at the basis of the harsh criticisms of the International Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) against Turkey,” the paper said. Stories in both papers closely echoed arguments made in recent government memos that have tried to rebut independent research on imprisoned journalists.

    The effect of these comments and reports is to conflate critics with terrorists. When the government and its allies link the EU or RSF or CPJ with terrorism, they are essentially making the same case that state prosecutors make regularly against journalists in Turkey. In indictment after indictment reviewed by CPJ, prosecutors have said that journalists who express dissenting political views are being directed by terrorist groups. Thus, the government reasons, they are themselves terrorists.

    These kinds of attacks do nothing to change international public opinion, which is united in the view that Turkey is the world’s worst jailer of the press. In fact, they reinforce the perception that an intolerant government deliberately conflates critical expression with terrorism in order to intimidate its perceived opponents.

    UPDATE: RSF has put out a statement rebutting the allegations and calling them “grave, disgraceful, and absurd.” Click here to read the press release.

    Joel Simon is the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. He has written widely on media issues, contributing to Slate, Columbia Journalism Review, The New York Review of Books, World Policy Journal, Asahi Shimbun, and The Times of India. He has led numerous international missions to advance press freedom. Follow him on Twitter @Joelcpj.

    via Conflating critics with terrorists in Turkey – Blog – Committee to Protect Journalists.

  • CPJ condemns journalist arrests in Turkey

    CPJ condemns journalist arrests in Turkey

    cpj1

    December 22, 2011

    Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

    Ceyhun Atıf Kansu Caddesi No. 122

    Balgat

    Ankara, Turkey

    Via facsimile: +90 312 473 64 55

    Dear Prime Minister Erdoğan,

    The Committee to Protect Journalists is writing to condemn the arrests of as many as 29 journalists in raids on Tuesday as well as the ongoing media repression that has earned Turkey a reputation as one of the world’s worst press freedom violators and done grave damage to the consolidation of Turkish democracy.

    In coordinated raids that stretched from Istanbul to Diyarbakir, and from Ankara to Izmir, police detained 40 individuals, according to state-run media. News reports said many are journalists, although the precise number is not clear. So far, CPJ has been able to identify 29 journalists by name and affiliation, and it continues to examine 11 others. Your government claims that the operation targets “the press and propaganda” arm of the Union of Kurdistan Communities (KCK), but it provides no evidence supporting this assertion. Authorities maintain that the KCK is the “urban wing” of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party, a claim that has been widely disputed.

    We are even more deeply troubled by this course of action because some in the Turkish media have alleged that a recent CPJ report confirming that eight Turkish journalist have been jailed for their work may have emboldened your government to take action. Indeed, your justice minister cited CPJ’s finding in remarks before Parliament on December 8, the newspaper Dünya reported.

    Mr. Prime Minister, it would be perverse for your government to take any solace whatsoever from CPJ’s conclusion that eight journalists are in jail because of their work. This number–just behind Burma and ahead of Ethiopia–places Turkey firmly in the company of some of the world’s most repressive countries and deeply compromises your government’s commitments to democracy and the rule of the law. Our list of eight journalists jailed should be seen as a black mark on your record and a source of shame.

    Moreover, it is a minimum. CPJ’s researchers systematically investigated every one of the estimated 64 journalists in jail in your country on December 1 to determine the reason for their incarceration. While we were able to confirm in eight cases that the charges were related to journalism, we condemn the jailing of every single journalist in Turkey because of pervasive due process violations. In many instances investigated by CPJ, the judicial process itself has been opaque and the charges unsubstantiated.

    Our research is ongoing, and we intend to send a delegation to Turkey in 2012 to further review the outstanding cases. We hope that your government will demonstrate its commitment to the transparent application of the law by cooperating with the CPJ delegation. We note with grave concern that we never received a response to our July 25 letter sent to your justice minister and requesting information about the spate of arrests.

    Mr. Prime Minister, we urge you to ensure that as a member of the Council of Europe and a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights, Turkey respect its international obligations, in particular by curbing the use of secret evidence against journalists. Your government’s record of what amounts to mass incarceration of journalists and media professionals without due process is doing grave damage to your country’s reputation as an emerging democratic power. The threat is compounded by the fact that thousands of criminal cases have been opened against journalists across Turkey.

    We urge you to amend this record, to commit your government to a transparent and open legal process, and to ensure that no journalists in Turkey are ever jailed for the expression of dissenting ideas.

    Sincerely,

    Joel Simon

    Executive Director

    CC

    Sadullah Ergin, Turkish Minister of Justice

    Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy

    Stefan Füle, European Union Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy

    Hélène Flautre, Chair of the European Parliament EU-Turkey delegation

    Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe

    via CPJ condemns journalist arrests in Turkey – Committee to Protect Journalists.

  • Freedom for Journalists Platform of Turkey, “The Committee to Protect Journalists Is Mistaken About Turkey”

    Freedom for Journalists Platform of Turkey, “The Committee to Protect Journalists Is Mistaken About Turkey”

    The Committee to Protect Journalists Is Mistaken About Turkey

    by the Freedom for Journalists Platform of Turkey

    Türkçe : https://www.turkishnews.com/tr/content/2011/12/22/gazetecilere-ozgurluk-platformu/

    gop cpj

    According to the tally of the American Committee to Protect Journalists, there are only eight journalists in jail in Turkey. We, as members of the Freedom for Journalists Platform, comprised of 94 national and local media associations, would like to point out that this is a grave error, unless of course it is deliberate deception. We call on the CPJ to correct its mistake.

    The incarceration of a single journalist in a country should be seen as an indication of a serious threat directed at the freedom of expression and freedom of the press.

    An effort by an international media organization to manipulate numbers and thereby belittle the gravity of the situation in Turkey would cast a dark shadow on the universal struggle for freedom of the press.

    We, as the Freedom for Journalists Platform of Turkey, condemn your report claiming that only eight journalists are in jail because of their professional activities.

    Accepting your figure as the truth would mean agreeing with those who have charged the remaining 56 (in jail for long periods of time, even though the trials of many are yet to start) with terroristic activities. This would harm those journalists and influence the judicial process.

    We, the Freedom for Journalists Platform, oppose anti-democratic policies which destroy the foundations of freedom of thought and expression in Turkey and strengthen the climate of censorship in the media. We fail to comprehend how the CPJ puts itself in the place of a criminal court.

    There is one more thing we have failed to understand.

    Why has the CPJ refused to use for Turkish journalists the criteria it used in declaring that 42 journalists are in jail in Iran?

    We suggest the CPJ take a close look at the reports of the European Security and Cooperation Organization (OSCE) concerning the number of journalists in jail in Turkey.

    If the freedom of the press is threatened in one country, the threat applies to all countries.

    Our goal in issuing this statement is not only to correct a mistake, but also to send an invitation for greater solidarity among those struggling for press freedom.

    FREEDOM FOR JOURNALISTS PLATFORM

    Turkish Representative of Association of European Journalists

    Europe and Turkish Journalists Association

    International Press Institute (IPI) National Committee

    Press Council

    Association of Contemporary Journalists

    Association of Foreign Correspondents

    PEN Turkish PEN Center

    The Association of Education and Health Reporters

    Association of Economy Journalists

    Association of Economy Reporters

    Association of Newspapers Owners

    Association of the Journalists (Ankara)

    The Association of the Journalists Foundation

    The Union of the Press Broadcasting Communication Postal Workers

    The Association of Research of Communication

    The Association of İzmir Journalists

    The Association of Culture Tourism Environment Journalists

    The Association of Parliament Reporters

    The Association of the Professional News Cameramen

    The Association of the Environment City Journalists

    The Association of Turkish Photo Reporters

    Turkish Journalists Association

    Turkish Federation of Journalists

    Turkish Journalists Union

    Turkish Sport Reporters Association.

    Turkish Publishers Union

    Turkish Union of the Writers

    The Ugur Mumcu Foundation of Investigative Reporting

    Adıyaman Journalists Association, Afyonkarahisar Journalists Association, Aksaray Journalists and Writers Association, Alanya Journalists Association, Anadolu Sport Journalists Association, Antakya Journalists Association, Antalya Journalists Association, Artvin Journalists Association, Aydın Journalists Association, Balıkesir Journalists Association, Bartın Journalists Association, Batman Journalists and Publishers, Bayburt Journalists Association, Bolu Journalists Association, Burdur Journalists Association, Bursa Journalists Association, Reporters of Presidency and Priministry, Çanakkale Journalists Association, Çorum Journalists Association, Çukurova Journalists Association, Denizli Journalists Association, Doğu Anadolu Journalists Association, Düzce Journalists Association, Edirne Journalists Association, Eskişehir Journalists Association, Fırat Havzası Journalists Association, Gaziantep Journalists Association, Giresun Journalists Association, Güneydoğu Journalists Association, Isparta Journalists Association, İskenderun Journalists Association, Karabük Journalists Association, Karaelmas Journalists Association, Karaman Journalists Association, Kars Kuzeydoğu Journalists Association, Kastamonu Journalists Association, Kayseri Journalists Association; Kırıkkale Müstakil Journalists Association, Kırşehir Journalists Association, Kilis Journalists Association, Kocaeli Journalists Association, Konya Journalists Association, Kütahya Journalists Association, Malatya Journalists Association, Manisa Journalists Association, Mersin Journalists Association, Muğla Journalists Association, Nevşehir Journalists Association, Niğde Journalists Association, Ordu Journalists Association, Osmaniye Journalists Association, Radio and Television Journalists Association, Sakarya Journalists Association, Samsun 19 Mayıs Journalists Association, Sinop Journalists Association, Sivas Journalists Association, Şanlıurfa GAP Journalists Association, Tokat Journalists Association, Trabzon Journalists Association, Trakya Journalists Association, Tunceli Journalists Association, Turkish News Cameramen Association, Uşak Faal Journalists Association, Yalova Journalists Association, Yozgat Journalists Writers Association, Zonguldak Journalists Association

    Click here to read the statement in Turkish. Translation by Oray Egin.

    via Freedom for Journalists Platform of Turkey, “The Committee to Protect Journalists Is Mistaken About Turkey”.

    cpj