Tag: press freedom

  • Turkey’s press continues to feel pressure from the state

    Turkey’s press continues to feel pressure from the state

    By Dorian Jones Istanbul

    63718725 dink afp
    The death of Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist killed in 2007, has been blamed by some on Turkish authorities, despite an arrest and conviction

    Turkey has put more journalists in jail than any other country, thanks to strict laws which punish dissent against the state. Critics says the state is stifling free speech, while the government says it is curbing propaganda by Kurdish separatists. Is the treatment of reporters hurting Turkey’s chances of joining the EU?

    Istanbul’s Palace of Justice, Europe’s largest courthouse, is a towering structure of glass and aluminium that dominates the surrounding neighbourhood. In one of its dozens of courtrooms one of the world’s largest trials of journalists is slowly progressing.

    In all, 44 reporters, drawn mainly from Kurdish publications and news agencies, are on trial under the country’s anti-terrorism laws. If found guilty, they could all face long prison sentences.

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    The first hearing in September drew international publicity, but ended in chaos with the defendants demanding to speak in Kurdish and the judge angrily berating their lawyers.

    “It is scandalous,” said Turkish parliamentary deputy Ertugrul Kurkcu of pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party. “It indicates this trial is going a bad way.”

    Some, however, think that the fact there is a trial at all is a step in the right direction. “It is better than the past,” says Huseyin Akyol, editor of the pro-Kurdish newspaper Ozgur Gundem, eight of whose staff are on trial.

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    Literally anything can be considered as supporting terrorism and according to the law that makes you a terrorist”

    Emma Sinclair Webb Human Rights Watch

    Mr Akyol, a 23-year veteran of the paper, offers a stark perspective. “In the 90s the state killed us, we lost 76 journalists and distributors and they blew up our offices. Now they just imprison us – although life in prison is difficult.”

    Turkey currently tops the world for jailed reporters. A report published this month by the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists found 76 journalists were imprisoned as of 1 August, of which 61 were identified as being detained because of their reporting.

    But the government claims most are not legitimate journalists but rather “propagandists” for the Kurdish rebel group PKK, which has been fighting the Turkish state for autonomy since 1984.

    “[There is] no difference between the bullets fired and the articles written in Ankara,” said Interior Minister Naim Idris Sahin in a speech this September.

    Critics say this mentality lies at the heart of Turkey’s anti-terror laws and why so many journalists are ending up behind bars.

    “The anti-terror laws are so broadly written. Literally anything can be considered as supporting terrorism and according to the law that makes you a terrorist,” says Emma Sinclair Webb, the Turkish representative of the US-based Human Rights Watch.

    “You must start changing a lot of laws and the mentality of the courts, which put people in prison for long periods unquestioningly.”

    Alarm bells

    The long arm of the Turkish law has extended into mainstream journalism as well.

    “I was driving my child to school and on the radio I heard the police were making arrests in relation to a conspiracy against the government, I was shocked when they said I was one of those to be arrested,” journalist Nedim Sener tells the BBC, sitting with his wife in his apartment after a long spell in jail.

    Placard calling for journalists' release outside Istanbul courthouse in 2012 Supporters called for the release of Nedim Sener and Ahmet Sik

    Mr Sener has won international journalism awards for work which has included investigating an alleged conspiracy by the Turkish army and state against the present government. Now he is accused of being involved in the very conspiracy he had been investigating.

    “Our cell was for three people. For 13 months we didn’t see anybody else other than each other. I can describe the place as a concrete grave. A place that people are left to decay.”

    He blames his detention on his ongoing investigation into the 2007 murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, which is widely blamed on elements within the Turkish state.

    The government denies the charge, saying that authorities successfully caught and convicted Dink’s murderer.

    But, while one man was convicted, in January, the court acquitted 19 others.

    And although the court rejected the allegation of a state conspiracy, a heated debate about that continues in Turkey.

    Fethiye Cetin, representing the Dink family, slammed the decision outside the court, saying it meant “a tradition was left untouched: the state tradition of political murders”.

    EU criticism

    The imprisonment of high profile journalists like Mr Sener and his colleague Ahmet Sik set alarm bells ringing across Turkey, and beyond.

    “There is absolutely no doubt, I have to say, that some of them [journalists] are in jail because they have written or broadcast things which are unpalatable to the government and to the authorities in this country,” stated Richard Howitt, member of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.

    “That is not just unpalatable to those of us in Brussels and European Union. It is unacceptable.”

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    Dangerous generalisations were reached through these isolated incidents”

    Ergemen Bagis Minister for EU Relations

    Large protests calling for Mr Sener and Mr Sik’s release were attended by some of the country’s most well-known journalists and news presenters. The journalists were eventually released this March, after their charges were reduced – although their case continues. Their release was possible under government legal reforms.

    The government claims it is committed to further reform, saying new legislation in parliament will address growing criticism. “Thoughts should not be restricted by any limit,” declared deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay on Press Freedom Day last July, acknowledging that problems still exist. “In our current legislation, we still have some regulations keeping thoughts and violence together.”

    But such commitment was not enough for the European Union, which criticised Ankara’s “increasing tendency to imprison journalists, media workers and distributors,” in an annual progress report on Turkey’s membership bid, published this month.

    “Freedom of the media continued to be further restricted in practice,” it said.

    Turkish soldiers on patrol on the Turkey/Iraq border in 2008 Turkey’s long-running conflict with Kurdish separatists is one cause of curbs on press freedom

    The report was immediately dismissed by Ankara. “Too much emphasis was placed on isolated incidents, and dangerous generalisations were reached through these isolated incidents,” countered Ergemen Bagis, Turkey’s minister for EU relations.

    ‘Dangerous course’

    The Turkish media is dominated by owners with other commercial interests, many of whom are competing for lucrative government contracts. Aydin Dogan, one of the country’s most prominent businessman, was forced to pay a tax fine of $1bn in September 2009, sending shockwaves through Turkey.

    The fine followed the publication by one of his newspapers of a German judge accusing senior members of the Turkish ruling AK party of involvement in Germany’s biggest charity fraud case. The government strongly denied involvement in the fraud – or collusion with the tax investigation.

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    Society is not talking about it, the fear has spread around the public”

    Nedim Sener Journalist

    “Self-censorship now is the basic instinct determining journalist behaviour when they write a news report,” says Kadri Gursel, a columnist for the Milliyet newspaper.

    “Why? Because of the fear of media bosses, who fear to be punished by the government who can do this in various ways. For journalists the minimum threat is to be fired, the maximum is jail.”

    One anonymous journalist says: “When the new owner met us, he said: ‘I am not interested in stories about the prime minister’s son owning big boats’.”

    The government says the media in Turkey is still free. Turkey’s tough stance towards the Syrian regime is the subject of withering criticism by much of the mainstream media. The country has also witnessed a phenomenal rise in the alternative news through social media.

    But for many reporters the profession has become an increasingly risky occupation. Mr Sener, only recently freed from prison, is not optimistic.

    “Journalists are afraid, but what is worse is that society is not talking about it, the fear has spread around the public. They are not breathing. And I see this as a very dangerous course for Turkey.”

  • CPJ: Turkey is Leading Jailer of Journalists – YouTube

    CPJ: Turkey is Leading Jailer of Journalists – YouTube

    For many people in the West, Turkey is a light of democracy in the Middle East. But a new report from the Committee to Protect Journalists says Turkey is the leading jailer of journalists worldwide, with 76 journalists currently imprisoned and thousands of cases against them and others circulating through the courts. As VOA’s Marissa Melton reports, Turkish journalists who cover controversial topics say they face constant pressure of prosecution.

    via CPJ: Turkey is Leading Jailer of Journalists – YouTube.

  • IPI decries censorship at Turkish political party convention in Ankara

    IPI decries censorship at Turkish political party convention in Ankara

    IPI decries censorship at Turkish political party convention in Ankara

    Dissident newspapers, television channels prevented from covering event

    By: Steven M. Ellis, IPI Senior Press Freedom Adviser

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    Turkey’s prime minister and the leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Recep Tayyip Erdogan, throws carnations to supporters as he enters the hall during his party congress in Ankara on Sept. 30, 2012. Photo: REUTERS/Murad Sezer

    VIENNA, Oct 1, 2012 – The International Press Institute (IPI) and its affiliate, the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), today condemned reported instances of censorship by Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) related to the party’s Congress yesterday in Ankara.

    Hürriyet reported that the party barred dissident newspapers and television channels from covering the event, including daily newspapers Cumhuriyet, Sözcü, Aydınlık, Evrensel, Birgün, Yeniçağ and Özgür Gündem, and broadcaster İMC TV. Other sources told IPI the broadcaster Ulusal Kanal was also barred from the convention.

    The AKP also reportedly prevented Habertürk TV from broadcasting a program in which journalist Utku Çakırözer, Cumhuriyet’s Ankara representative, was to offer live commentary from the convention hall on Saturday, the night before the convention took place.

    A source told IPI that an adviser to AKP Vice President Hüseyin Çelik threatened to cancel an appearance by Çelik on the channel if it broadcast Saturday’s program with Çakırözer. The source added that Habertürk TV acceded to the demand to cancel the broadcast with Çakırözer after the adviser produced a copy of a document prohibiting Cumhuriyet journalists from entering the empty convention hall on Saturday or during the convention on Sunday.

    IPI’s Turkish National Committee issued a statement yesterday on behalf of the Freedom for Journalists Platform (GÖP), an umbrella group representing local and national media organisations in Turkey.

    “The news that reporters and journalists from some press organs are not allowed to enter the AK Party’s Congress is very worrying,” the group said.

    “Monitoring this historical event of the ruling government party on the spot and transferring it to its readers and viewers are primary duties of news media.

    “We have previously protested the accreditation limitations at other institutions. But now, it is very disappointing that the same accreditation is being applied by a political party whose existence depends on democracy.

    “We wish to believe that necessary steps will be taken to correct this decision which will raise doubts among the journalists who will enter the congress.”

    via IPI International Press Institute: IPI decries censorship at Turkish political party convention in Ankara.

  • In Turkey the right to free speech is being lost

    In Turkey the right to free speech is being lost

    Erdogan is using a series of alleged plots to justify a crackdown on dissent that threatens basic freedoms

    Mehdi Hasan
    guardian.co.uk,

    erdogan 008
    Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, has been described as ‘Putinesque’ by critics. Photograph: Nikolay Doychinov/AFP/Getty Images

    Which country in the world currently imprisons more journalists than any other? The People’s Republic of China? Nope. Iran? Wrong again. The rather depressing answer is the Republic of Turkey, where nearly 100 journalists are behind bars, according to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Yes, that’s right: modern, secular, western-oriented Turkey, with its democratically elected government, has locked away more members of the press than China and Iran combined.

    But this isn’t just about the press – students, academics, artists and opposition MPs have all recently been targeted for daring to speak out against the government of prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his mildly Islamist Justice and Development Party, or AKP.

    There is a new climate of fear in Istanbul. When I visited the city last week to host a discussion show for al-Jazeera English, I found journalists speaking in hushed tones about the clampdown on free speech. Within 24 hours of our arrival, one of my al-Jazeera colleagues was detained by police officers, who went through his bag and rifled through one of my scripts. They loudly objected to a line referring to the country’s “increasingly authoritarian government”. Who says that Turks don’t do irony?

    The stock response from members of the AKP government is to blame the imprisonment and intimidation on Turkey’s supposedly “independent” judiciary. But this will not do. For a start, ministers haven’t been afraid of interfering in high-profile prosecutions. In a speech at – of all places – the Council of Europe in April 2011, a defiant Erdogan, commenting on the controversial detention of the investigative journalist Ahmet Sik, compared Sik’s then unpublished book to a bomb: “It is a crime to use a bomb, but it is also a crime to use materials from which a bomb is made.”

    Then there is the behind-the-scenes pressure that is exerted by the government on media organisations. “People are afraid of criticising Erdogan openly,” says Mehmet Karli, a lecturer at Galatasaray University in Istanbul and a campaigner for Kurdish rights. “They might not be arrested, but they will lose their jobs.”

    In February, for example, Nuray Mert, a columnist for the Milliyet newspaper, was sacked and her TV show cancelled after she was publicly singled out for criticism by the prime minister. Last month Ali Akel, a conservative columnist for the pro-government newspaper Yeni Safak, was fired for daring to write a rare, critical article about Erdogan’s handling of the Kurdish issue.

    But the restrictions on freedom of speech don’t stop with the media.

    Exhibit A: last week, two students were sentenced to eight years and five months in prison by a court in Istanbul for “membership of a terrorist organisation”, while a third student was sentenced to two years and two months behind bars for spreading terrorist propaganda. Yet the students, Berna Yilmaz, Ferhat Tüzer and Utku Aykar, had merely unfurled a banner reading “We want free education, we will get it,” at a public meeting attended by Erdogan in March 2010.

    Exhibit B: on 1 June Fazil Say, one of Turkey’s leading classical pianists, was charged with “publicly insulting religious values that are adopted by a part of the nation” after he retweeted a few lines from a poem by the 11th-century Persian poet, Omar Khayyam, that mocked the Islamic vision of heaven. Say’s trial is scheduled for October, and if convicted the pianist faces up to 18 months in prison. The irony is not lost on those Turks who remember how Erdogan himself was imprisoned in 1998, when he was mayor of Istanbul, for reading out a provocative poem.

    Erdogan, re-elected as prime minister for the second time last June and now considered the most powerful Turkish leader since Kemal Ataturk, has become intolerant of criticism and seems bent on crushing domestic opposition.

    “He is Putinesque,” says Karli, referring to reports that Erdogan plans to emulate the Russian leader’s switch from prime minister to president and thereby become the longest-serving leader in Turkish history. “Yes, he wins elections,” adds Karli, “but he does not respect the rights of those who do not vote or support him.”

    Let’s be clear: Turkey in the pre-Erdogan era was no liberal democratic nirvana. Since its creation in 1923, the republic has had to endure three military coups against elected governments: in 1960, 1971, and 1980. The AKP government is the first to succeed in neutering the military. And its paranoia is not wholly unjustified: Turkey’s constitutional court was just one vote from banning the AKP in 2008, and a series of alleged anti-government plots and conspiracies were exposed in 2010 and 2011.

    “I am concerned by the numbers [of imprisoned journalists] but they’re not all innocent,” the AKP MP Nursuna Memecan tells me. “Many of them were plotting against the government.” It’s a line echoed by her party leader. “It is hard for western countries to understand the problem because they do not have journalists who engage in coup attempts and who support and invite coups,” declared Erdogan in a speech in January.

    Perhaps. But the AKP’s crackdown on dissent, on basic freedoms of speech and expression, has gone beyond all civilised norms. “We do need to expand free speech in Turkey,” admits Memecan.

    Those of us who have long argued that elected Islamist parties should not be denied the opportunity to govern invested great hope in Erdogan and the AKP. But what I discovered in Istanbul is that there is still a long way to go. The truth is that Turkey cannot be the model, the template, for post-revolutionary, Muslim-majority countries like Tunisia and Egypt until it first gets its own house in order. To inspire freedom abroad, the Turkish government must first guarantee freedom at home.

  • Erdogan vs. Auster: Why Is the Turkish Prime Minister Feuding with a Brooklyn-based Writer?

    Erdogan vs. Auster: Why Is the Turkish Prime Minister Feuding with a Brooklyn-based Writer?

    By Pelin Turgut

    An Internet-fueled war of words raged across the Atlantic this week between the unlikeliest of opponents: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an Islamic-leaning politician of fiery rhetoric and oft-bellicose disposition, and the erudite Brooklyn-based American novelist Paul Auster. At issue was the state of press freedom in Turkey, which currently ranks alongside China in the number of journalists it has jailed.

    auster erdogan

    The spat was prompted by Auster’s comments to a Turkish newspaper that he would not visit Turkey, or China, in protest of the jailing of dozens of journalists and intellectuals. “How many are jailed now? Over 100?” said Auster, a well-read author in Turkey where his new book Winter Journal has just been published.

    Around 100 members of the Turkish press are currently in jail, according to the Turkish Journalists Union – they include two well-known investigative reporters critical of the government, Ahmet Sik and Nedim Sener, whose detention has made them an international cause célèbre. The government insists they are not being prosecuted because of what they wrote, but for engaging in illegal activities.

    In Ankara, Erdogan seized on Auster’s words during an address to party members. “Ah, we really depend on you,” he said, sarcastically. “Who cares if you come or if you don’t? Would Turkey lose prestige?”

    The Prime Minister went on to accuse Auster of being hypocritical in view of the author’s recent visit to Israel, with whom Ankara has icy relations. “Supposedly Israel is a democratic country, a secular country, a country of limitless freedom of expression, individual freedoms and human rights. What an ignorant man you are… Israel is a real theocracy,” Erdogan said. “Didn’t [Israel] shower Gaza with bombs? Didn’t [Israel] launch phosphorus bombs and use chemical weapons?”

    Auster quickly shot back: “Whatever the Prime Minister might think about the State of Israel, the fact is that free speech exists there and no writers or journalists are in jail.”

    Most of Turkey’s jailed journalists work for the Kurdish press and were detained as part of a sweeping plan to eradicate a group called KCK, which the government says is an urban offshoot of the Kurdish separatist group PKK. But those arrested for alleged KCK related offenses include people like Busra Ersan, a well-known and respected Istanbul professor, and publisher Ragip Zarakolu, whose work has been commended internationally. Due to the glacial pace of the Turkish court system, it might take months before they appear before a judge. “According to the latest numbers gathered by PEN, there are nearly one hundred writers imprisoned in Turkey, not to speak of independent international publishers such as Ragip Zarakolu, whose case is being closely watched by PEN Centers around the world,” Auster said.

    The Auster affair instantly became headline news in Turkey. “One of the last things I could ever have imagined is that Prime Minister Erdogan, who has become an important global political figure, would engage in coffeehouse style polemics with the famous author Paul Auster,” wrote commentator Cengiz Candar in the Radikal newspaper. “Yes, this will make Turkey lose altitude (internationally).”

    The charismatic Erdogan, who was re-elected by an overwhelming majority for a third term in June, has become an increasingly high-profile leader in recent years, particularly in the wake of the Arab Spring. Under him, Turkey is now the most popular country among people in 16 countries in the Middle East, according to a new survey by the research group TESEV. More than 60 percent of respondents said they thought Turkey was a positive role model.

    Ironically, the main reason cited for Turkey’s appeal was its “democratic regime.” This came above other factors like its booming economy or Muslim identity. Yet it is precisely on that score that Erdogan’s authoritarian bent has drawn increasing criticism at home and from Europe and the US. In 2011, Turkey was the worst violator of press freedoms in Europe, according to the European Court of Human Rights. Erdogan himself brooks little dissent and does not hesitate to sue journalists or cartoonists who are critical of him. So although Paul Auster is the first novelist of international stature to earn his wrath, he might not be the last.

    via Erdogan vs. Auster: Why Is the Turkish Prime Minister Feuding with a Brooklyn-based Writer? | Global Spin | TIME.com.

  • Erdogan Pledges ‘No Revenge’ as Turkish Press in Spotlight

    Erdogan Pledges ‘No Revenge’ as Turkish Press in Spotlight

    By Ayla Albayrak

    Turkey’s economy may have made giant leaps forward in 2011, but press freedoms appeared to take a significant step back. Scores of arrests and high-profile firings have fanned a growing international outcry that media freedoms here have been heavily compromised.

    Late on Wednesday, Reporters Without Borders confirmed in its annual report that perceptions of freedom of expression in Turkey fell sharply in 2011. According to the Paris-based NGO, Turkey — an EU candidate country — sunk 10 places to 148th of 179 countries ranked; six places below Russia and followed by Mexico and Afghanistan.

    Agence France-Presse/Getty Images  Newspapers are displayed at a newsstand in Istanbul.
    Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Newspapers are displayed at a newsstand in Istanbul.

    The tide of negative publicity appears to be of growing concern to Ankara. Just hours after the report Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered his response, denying accusations that his ruling AK Party has restricted freedom of expression and pledging to drop cases against a number of journalists accused of crimes that could not result in more than five years in prison.

    “Turkey does not deserve the negative image portrayed to the world by the main opposition and some journalists and writers,” Mr. Erdogan said late Wednesday, speaking at the 25th anniversary of a pro-government newspaper, Zaman, in Ankara. The AKP government has “never sought revenge” against hostile media, he added.

    The prime minister stressed that journalists were heavily involved in a failed attempt to overthrow his party in 2008. Evidence used in court case seeking to ban his ruling party leaned heavily on newspaper reports and coverage of AKP members’ public speeches.

    “We practically fought with (newspaper) headlines… They (coup plotters) made journalists write those stories, and then put the clips into the dossier and opened a closure case against our party,” he said. “God knows that we never sought revenge, and we never will,” Mr. Erdogan said.

    The speech marks one of the prime minister’s most detailed attempts to defend his government against charges that press freedom is Turkey has declined. But his comments stand in stark contrast to the Reporters Without Borders report.

    “At a time when it is portraying itself as a regional model, Turkey (148th) took a big step backwards and lost 10 places. Far from carrying out promised reforms, the judicial system launched a wave of arrests of journalists that was without precedent since the military dictatorship,” the report stated.

    Turkey’s low ranking confirmed what many already knew in Turkey: that despite the government’s promises of wider freedom of expression, media freedoms decreased rapidly in 2011.

    Last year was marked by the arrests of journalists and the beginning of a trial, in which 10 journalists are charged with aiding an alleged antigovernment terrorist organization named Ergenekon. Among the arrests were investigative journalists Nedim Sener and Ahmet Sik, who both were working on sensitive topics that are the basis for criminal charges against them. Messrs. Sener and Sik have now been detained for almost 11 months, which has drawn criticism from human rights groups and the EU.

    Currently, Turkey has close to a hundred journalists in jails, many charged with Turkey’s tough antiterrorism laws and awaiting trials in detention. At the same time, self-censorship is a reality of the job, according to many reporters working in the Turkish media. Recently a number of outspoken journalists, among them publicly well-known figures as writer Ece Temelkuran and TV reporter Banu Guven, who held a critical stance in issues such as press freedom and Turkey’s Kurdish minority, lost their jobs and have publicly criticized self-censorship under government pressure.

    A prominent lawyer in Turkey’s high-profile media freedom lawsuits said the prime minister’s intervention would not free Messrs. Sener and Sik, nor solve problems that are at the root of Turkey’s deteriorating press freedom record.

    “As long as the articles in Turkey’s Penal Code, which restrict freedom of expression, are not touched, we cannot speak of any improvement at all,” the lawyer said.

    via Erdogan Pledges ‘No Revenge’ as Turkish Press in Spotlight – Emerging Europe Real Time – WSJ.