TURKEY tr-national
Journalists in Turkey march again for colleagues' freedom
ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News | 3/20/2011 12:00:00 AM |
Journalists’ associations in Turkey have again taken to the streets of the capital amid growing concerns about the deterioration of press freedom.
Journalists’ associations in Turkey have again taken to the streets of the capital amid growing concerns about the deterioration of press freedom.
Approximately 2,000 journalists assembled in downtown Ankara and marched to Kızılay Square to protest the detention of their colleagues and call on the government to uphold its promises for more democracy.
“We are here today because we are concerned that the people’s right to information act is being precluded,” Ercan İpekçi, the rotating president of the Platform for the Freedom of Journalists, said in his speech at the demonstration Saturday.
The march was the second rally of the country’s journalists in recent weeks following the arrests of investigative reporters Nedim Şener and Ahmet Şık as part of the ongoing Ergenekon case, an investigation into an alleged gang accused of plotting a coup.
With 68 journalists currently in prison, Turkey has one of the worst press freedom records in the world, İpekçi said, calling on officials not to see reporters as potential criminals.
“Freedom of the press will totally be abolished if journalists are counted as members of a terrorist organization because of their journalistic activities,” he said, demanding that the arrested journalists be released pending trial.
“Release them in the name of law, of universal principles and values, of reason and of conscience,” İpekçi said.
In simultaneous public statements in Ankara, Istanbul and İzmir on Friday, four professional organizations criticized the oppressive policies of the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP.
With the motto “Now is not the time to remain silent but to speak louder,” the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions, or KESK, the Confederation of Revolutionary Workers' Unions, or DISK, the Turkish Engineers' and Architects' Chambers, or TMMOB, and the Turkish Doctors Union, or TTB, also criticized the recent arrests of journalists in a common public statement in Sakarya, Ankara, Taksim Square in Istanbul and in Konak, İzmir.