Turkish PM Erdogan Slammed for Censorship, Intimidation - NGO
- Today’s Zaman newspaper management seized by court order. The newspaper is one of the few remaining independent voices amid the media crackdown by Erdogan’s government.
Censorship, intimidation of journalists, and forcing critical voices out of business are all the hallmarks of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rule.
Reporters Without Borders successfully campaigned to release journalist Can Dündar (pictured above), who broke the news that the Turkish intelligence service was delivering arms to the ruthless terrorist group ISIS. Since his story was released in the Turkish daily Cumhuriyet in May 2015, he was arrested and spent 92 days in jail before being charged.
He faces life imprisonment for informing the public, says the NGO.
“Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been clamping down methodically on the media in Turkey for years, first as prime minister and now as president. The persecution of journalists across the political spectrum is growing in ferocity and includes arrests, threats and intimidation – all actions unworthy of a democracy,” said the NGO in a release.
His victims include Can Dündar, the editor-in-chief of the Turkish daily Cumhuriyet, and Dündar’s Ankara bureau chief, Erdem Gül, who were jailed on the evening of 26 November.
Both are exemplars of journalism, the search for truth and the defence of freedoms. Cumhuriyet was awarded the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Press Freedom Prize in the media category in 2015.
“Dündar will pay for this” President Erdogan said in a public statement, referring to the story on arms deliveries. But Cumhuriyet’s journalists just did their job, publishing information in the public interest. At a time when jihadism is at the centre of everyone’s concerns, it is unacceptable that political prosecutions are used to suppress investigative reporting, says the NGO.
Erdogan is heavily criticised for infringing press freedoms.
As a result of an energetic campaign both in Turkey and internationally, Dündar and Gül were freed on 25 February, after the Constitutional Court ruled that their provisional detention violated their fundamental rights. The campaign has borne fruit but it cannot stop here. They are still facing possible life sentences (with no provision for a pardon) on charges of spying and complicity in terrorism.
The trial will begin on 25 March.
“Right from the very first hearing in our trial, on 25 March, we are going to fully expose the state’s crimes,” Dündar comments. “We are not going to defend ourselves. We are going to put the state’s crimes on trial.”
“Yes, international pressure is effective,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said. “For millions of people in Turkey and elsewhere, Can Dündar now symbolizes the very essence of journalism. We will not rest until the absurd charges have been dropped. We will be there at the opening of his trial on 25 March. Mr. Erdogan, we hold you responsible for Can Dündar’s safety.”
“RSF will be there, at the side of these two information heroes,” said the NGO.
Reporters Without Borders has called on the president to drop all charges against Dündar and Gül.
To sign the petition and defend democracy and freedom of the press click here.
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