The international bodies of human rights, the press freedom and the freedom of expression called Turkish government to release imprisoned journalists immediately at 38th Session of UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneve, Switzerland on Wednesday.
A panel titled ‘Press Freedom in Turkey’ organized by the Press Emblem Campaign (PEC), a non-governmental organization with special consultative status at the United Nations (UN), hosted representatives of human rights and press freedom organisations at the Palace of Nations, the headquarters of the HRC.
Jeremy Dear, Deputy Secretary General of International Federation of Journalists (IFC), said at the pane that it is obvious that the only aim of the Turkish government is to silence critical journalists in Turkey. Dear called international community to help efforts to stop the misuse of Turkish Penal Code (TCK) that becomes a tool to jail journalists with trumped up charges. Dear also suggested that Turkey’s definition of terror should be in line with the international standards. ‘The media crackdown in Turkey is the worst in the world,’ added Dear.
Blaise Lempen, Secretary General of PEC, has underlined the fact that no claims or charges that Turkish public prosecutors submitted in their indictments have ever been proven true. Lempen also said the oppressive actions of the Erdoğan government could only be seen in anti- democratic and dictatorial regimes.
Levent Kenez, the Coordinator on Freedom of Press & Expression at the Stockholm Center For Freedom (SCF), said the common and utmost demand the jailed colleagues in Turkey is not to be forgotten.
Kenez listed examples of charges and evidences brought up in the indictments penned by the prosecutors during his presentation at the panel. “Even a Twitter message that has no political or ideological content could be an evidence for being arrested,” said Kenez.
“Ironically, there are some jailed colleagues who were accused of subscribing to newspapers that they had worked for,” said Kenez and added that “More than 90 percent of the journalists behind bars have lost their freedom after the controversial coup attempt on July 15, 2016. That shows how the Erdoğan government makes use of the state of emergency declared right after the coup attempt.”
Kenez also displayed the posters of senior Turkish journalists published and circulated by Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency (AA), which looked like wanted posters from western movies. “This is how Turkish government targets critical journalists in exile and feeds hatred and violence,” he stated.
Kenez also shared his personal story in which he found himself in exile. He was briefly detained after the coup attempt and fled Turkey illegally since another detention warrant was issued and his passport was cancelled.
Alfred de Zayas, who is UN Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order and the moderator of the panel, said that “The situation of press freedom in Turkey is worse than what outsiders know. International community should work much more in order to help voices of the jailed journalist be heard.”
Turkey is ranked 157th among 180 countries in the 2018 World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders (RSF). 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 244 journalists and media workers were in jail as of June 21, 2018, most in pretrial detention. Of those in prison 184 were under arrest pending trial while only 60 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 a coup attempt in Turkey on July 15, 2016.
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from Stockholm Center for Freedom https://stockholmcf.org/panel-at-un-human-rights-council-calls-turkish-govt-to-release-jailed-journalists/
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