Turkish journalist Emre Soncan (36), who has been jailed in Turkey’s notorious Silivri Prison in İstanbul for 665 days and sentenced by a court to 7 years and 6 months in prison on charges of “membership of a terrorist organisation,” said that “A journalist is critical, skeptical, rebellious and utopian etc… So, a journalist is a lot of things, but he/she is not just one thing; the journalist is not a terrorist.”
A Turkish court on April 10, 2018 handed down a prison sentence of seven-and-a-half years on terror charges to journalist Soncan, who is among dozens of journalists jailed in the aftermath of a controversial military coup attempt on July 15, 2016.
Soncan was detained 10 days after the coup attempt and was arrested along with 21 other journalists in the same investigation on July 29, 2016. With additional arrests the number rose to 27. The trial at the İstanbul 25th High Criminal Court was concluded on March 8, 2018.
Toward the end of the trial in which Soncan was charged with membership in a terrorist organization and was awaiting a verdict following his 20-month stay in prison, the judge decided to separate his dossier from the others, saying that there was a new case against him and that he would be tried in new proceedings.
Soncan, who has been in pretrial detention for 627 days in Silivri Prison in İstanbul, was convicted of membership in a terrorist organization. However, the Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF) was told that the verdict in Soncan’s case was made without giving him the relevant documents required for his defence before the court. Therefore, the young journalist refused to present his defence at the final hearing due to the fact that the documents he requested were withheld from him.
Giving a written interview from his prison cell to the SCF, the jailed reporter of now-closed Zaman daily told about his passion for freedom and expressed his impatience for the day when he would return to his profession and again doing journalism only for the people.
Young journalist Soncan has also said that he is offended with the European politicians, He said that the European politicians have betrayed the struggle for the press freedom and freedom of thought in Turkey for the sake of the economic and political interests of their countries. Soncan has criticised the European politicians by saying that “They are disloyal to the values that made Europe the current Europe.”
Turkey is ranked 157th among 180 countries in the 2018 World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Wednesday. If Turkey falls two more places, it will make it to the list of countries on the blacklist, which have the poorest record in press freedom.
Turkey is the biggest jailer of journalists in the world. The most recent figures documented by SCF show that 253 journalists and media workers were in jail as of May 11, 2018, most in pretrial detention. Of those in prison 192 were under arrest pending trial while only 61 journalists have been convicted and are serving their time. Detention warrants are outstanding for 142 journalists who are living in exile or remain at large in Turkey.
Detaining tens of thousands of people over alleged links to the Gülen movement, the government also closed down some 200 media outlets, including Kurdish news agencies and newspapers, after the coup attempt in Turkey on July 15, 2016.
Jailed journalist Emre Soncan’s answers to SCF’s questions are as follows:
First of all, could you talk about how you were arrested and what your current situation is?
I started working in Zaman newspaper in 2004 after short internships on CNN Türk TV and Star newspaper. As I continued my profession with the title of ‘Presidency and General Staff Correspondent’, I was dismissed from by duty by the new administration after the seizure of Zaman newspaper. I was arrested on July 29, 2016 during operations launched against the opposition media in the wake of the despicable coup attempt on July 15, 2016. I have been sentenced to 7 years and 6 months in prison over ‘membership of a terror organization’ because of the books and news stories I wrote and criticisms I made on TV channels targeting the government. I’ve been arrested for about 2 years.
How is your prison life going?
As night comes, I do not know at all if there is a daytime in prison. Since I do not use the sheets and pillows given by the prison administration, I get into the bedclothes I bought from the prison canteen, I pull the blanket with the two fingertips up to the nose, I try to fix the fold of the blankets with my feet as I lay down, I turn right for a while then turn left for a while, I fall asleep at a moment as I am dreaming for my freedom … Naturally, as I sleep, the whole prison also starts to sleep. The heater on the side of my bed, the books and magazines on the radiator are also closing their eyes. Even the steps of the staircase are sleeping. But the passion for freedom within me is not sleeping. Since my passion for freedom within me not sleeps, all my sleep turns into a nightmare between sleeping and awakening.
I think only the fringes of the roof seem to me not sleeping beside of me. Because I can always hear the voices caused by waters flowing from the eaves to the yard and as they hit the concrete floor.
During the daylight, orange lights of the sun is glowing out of my eyes. I am trying to set a balance between light and darkness. It’s like an effort that a rope skater, who has not yet mastered in his talent, is trying to protect his balance on the rope …
I read, I write, I think … Actually, I am trying to cling on life by reading, writing, thinking. Writer Hasan Ali Toptaş says in his book Gölgesizler (Those who have no shadow) that “Life consists of repetition.” I do not remember life really was like that. But in prison all days are a repetition of each other. We are forbidden to see our friends because of state of emergency (OHAL) applications. We only have a phone call every two weeks. Open visit for our families is only once every two months. So you have to wait for sixty long days to be able to hug your loved ones. Letters and books were also forbidden for a long time. Fortunately, they abandoned this outdated practice.
We have a small courtyard in size of nine-foot, but covered with wire cages. I think they are afraid of us to embrace the clouds. Or maybe they are afraid of we can collect sun lights when the sun sets.
Do not tell anyone, but I have my imaginary wings. I run from prison time to time. The gendarmeries and prison guards could not see. I have also my words. I build bridges with them which go to eternity. I am walking on these velvet letters silently. Neither judges nor police can come behind me. Because they do not have their words…
Sometimes I witness small miracles here. For instance, one day, a tiny butterfly with cloudy yellow pieces attached to its earth brown body, was placed on the side of the glass. I could not understand why this butterfly chose my prison, and my warden in the prison to live its short life. Anyway, I felt myself very happy.
Let me also tell you the moment that I wrote these lines. The sun shines are hitting the half of the courtyard and the clothes are drying under the sun. A calm shadow dominates on the other half of the courtyard with a slight breeze. Here, I sit on a plastic seat that I put this shadowy part of the courtyard where I take my left leg and put it on my right leg, bending my cheek on my left hand and as I am looking to the harmony among the colour of the tea in the cup that I held on my right hand and my burgundy shirt, and also the disharmony among my all manners with the atmosphere of the prison, I am writing these lines.
What do you think about the situation of imprisoned journalists in Turkey and the rising critical voices from the West on the problem?
Right now, hundreds of journalists in my country are behind the bars only because of their thoughts. However, as late Turkish author Selahattin Eyüboğlu emphasized, ‘The greatest crime of thought is to claim the thought is a crime.’ The essence of journalism as a profession is skepticism and critical thinking. Suspicion and criticism also start with thinking.
For me, the greatest crime that a journalist could commit is to engage in political power and to position itself on the side of power, the government and the state, and to turn his/her back the the society. Many of us, as journalists, became a part of this crime at the time. Now I am purified from this crime in the prison. And I am longing impatiently for reaching my freedom as soon as possible and down journalism only for the society.
When we come to your question again, yes, the common point of me and other colleagues in the prison is to criticize the government and to think that the essential problem of this country is the political understanding of those who govern the country. And, unfortunately, every passing day, every anti-democratic move, the trend of increasing pressure on the media and opposition, confirms our stance.
I am especially grateful to my colleagues and the friends working for the non-governmental organisations in the European Union (EU) countries. They’re trying to make our voice heard on every platform. But, I can not make the same optimistic sentences for European politicians. They are turning their backs on the problem of the freedom of expression and freedom of thought in this country because of their relations with the Turkish government and their pursuance of the so-called ‘national interests.’ In fact, they are unfaithful to the values that have made Europe the current Europe. I do not even want to mention any of the media organizations in Turkey. It is not possible for them to serve the freedom of the press ideal in a real sense and to create an influence on the government in the short run, as long as, they insist on giving support to and showing solidarity only with the colleagues who are close to their view of world and unless they are stripped of their ideological eclipses they infected as expressed by late Turkish thinker Cemil Meriç.
What do you want to say on the “terrorist” accusations for the critical journalists?
A journalist can not be in peace with power anywhere in the world because he tries to tell the public what the government is trying to hide from the public and since the journalists are constantly suspicious about the government’s executive choices. Criticism of the government is not a hostile attitude, but rather an obligation of our profession. The journalist is the rebellious… He/she writes his stories on his feet, not on his knees. He/she always dreams for a better country and a better world. Even he knows that it is an impossible dream, the journalist always dreams for perfection. In this regard the journalist is a utopian the most of time. Namely, the journalist is critical, skeptical, rebellious and utopian etc… So, the journalist is a lot of things, but he/she is not just one thing; the journalist is not a terrorist.
I was hurt when they said “coup journalist welcome’ in my first night in the prison… I was hurt when I walked through the courthouse’s corridors with handcuffs among the gendarmes and when the hostile eyes of our citizens focused on me… I was hurt when I was put in detention together with twelve people in a cell which was only for three people and as a murder suspect was sleeping just next to me in this cell… However, living is to get injured and to get injured was nice. In order to understand the agonies and pains of of others may be it was a necessity to have been hurt and wounded. Thus I could understand the wounds and the pains of others.
As a conclusion I would like to say that the subjects of accusations for me, namely my news, my books, my comments and the most importantly my thoughts are my children. They asked for my children. I refused to give them my children. Do not give your kids to anyone!..
The post Jailed Turkish journalist Emre Soncan: European politicians disloyal to European values appeared first on Stockholm Center for Freedom.
from Stockholm Center for Freedom https://stockholmcf.org/jailed-turkish-journalist-emre-soncan-european-politicians-disloyal-to-european-values/
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder