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TURKEY IS WORLD'S TOP JAILER OF JOURNALISTS FOR SECOND YEAR IN A ROW - CPJ
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), NY
Dec 18 2013
For the second year in a row, our prison census shows, Turkey jailed
more journalists than any other country. The number of journalists
behind bars is 40; down from the 61 reporters in October 2012, and
less than the 49 we recorded on December 1, 2012. Still, Turkey holds
more journalists in custody than Iran, China, or Eritrea.
As a NATO member and a regional leader, Turkey should not belong in
the list of top press jailers. But from the failure to reform its
legislation in a meaningful way to the crackdown on its journalists in
the aftermath of the Gezi Park protests, Turkey has grown increasingly
repressive despite the modest decline in the number of media workers
behind bars.
Many of the journalists released in the months since October 2012 are
still on trial. Among them is Nedim Šener, the Turkish recipient of
our 2013 International Press Freedom Award, who faces up to 15 years
in prison if convicted on charges of supporting an alleged terrorist
plot, Ergenekon.
CPJ has had the opportunity to discuss our concerns with Turkish
officials. In September, the Justice Ministry received a CPJ
delegation; CPJ chairman Sandra Mims Rowe, board member John Carroll,
and executive director Joel Simon met with Justice Ministry official
Kenan Ozdemir and delivered a detailed letter on press freedom issues.
The two parties agreed to exchange information on jailed journalists.
At CPJ's request, in November, the ministry sent CPJ a tabulated
document - posted for public reference here - detailing the
whereabouts, imprisonment dates, and charges levied against 54 jailed
journalists. Among them were several recent cases of journalists
jailed under the anti-terror legislation. Out of the 54 people listed,
CPJ independently confirmed - through careful perusal of indictments,
press reports, publicly available legal documents, and testimony by
lawyers, colleagues, and the defendants - that 40 of the journalists
were imprisoned for their work. In the 14 remaining cases, CPJ
concluded there was not sufficient information to determine that
the imprisonments were work-related. In those cases, CPJ continues
to investigate.
In his International Press Freedom Award acceptance speech before a
large media audience at New York's Waldorf-Astoria hotel in November,
Nedim Sener spoke critically of Turkey's judicial system. Sener is the
author of several books, including an investigation into the unresolved
2007 murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, in which Sener
alleged official involvement. He detailed his own experience - of being
jailed without a verdict for an entire year, then released after an
intense international outcry, but only temporarily. "I am still on
trial and can be imprisoned for 15 more years," he said. "This is
how Turkish justice works - instead of bringing journalist killers
to trial, journalists are tried as terrorists."
In the past few years Turkey went from a country considered a regional
hope to one of regional concern, characterized by an increasingly
shrinking space for free expression. Turkey stands at a crossroads,
and it is not yet too late for it to choose a path of democracy
and tolerance over authoritarianism and censorship. It can start by
releasing the 40 journalists in Turkish prisons as of December 1.
From: Baghdasarian
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), NY
Dec 18 2013
For the second year in a row, our prison census shows, Turkey jailed
more journalists than any other country. The number of journalists
behind bars is 40; down from the 61 reporters in October 2012, and
less than the 49 we recorded on December 1, 2012. Still, Turkey holds
more journalists in custody than Iran, China, or Eritrea.
As a NATO member and a regional leader, Turkey should not belong in
the list of top press jailers. But from the failure to reform its
legislation in a meaningful way to the crackdown on its journalists in
the aftermath of the Gezi Park protests, Turkey has grown increasingly
repressive despite the modest decline in the number of media workers
behind bars.
Many of the journalists released in the months since October 2012 are
still on trial. Among them is Nedim Šener, the Turkish recipient of
our 2013 International Press Freedom Award, who faces up to 15 years
in prison if convicted on charges of supporting an alleged terrorist
plot, Ergenekon.
CPJ has had the opportunity to discuss our concerns with Turkish
officials. In September, the Justice Ministry received a CPJ
delegation; CPJ chairman Sandra Mims Rowe, board member John Carroll,
and executive director Joel Simon met with Justice Ministry official
Kenan Ozdemir and delivered a detailed letter on press freedom issues.
The two parties agreed to exchange information on jailed journalists.
At CPJ's request, in November, the ministry sent CPJ a tabulated
document - posted for public reference here - detailing the
whereabouts, imprisonment dates, and charges levied against 54 jailed
journalists. Among them were several recent cases of journalists
jailed under the anti-terror legislation. Out of the 54 people listed,
CPJ independently confirmed - through careful perusal of indictments,
press reports, publicly available legal documents, and testimony by
lawyers, colleagues, and the defendants - that 40 of the journalists
were imprisoned for their work. In the 14 remaining cases, CPJ
concluded there was not sufficient information to determine that
the imprisonments were work-related. In those cases, CPJ continues
to investigate.
In his International Press Freedom Award acceptance speech before a
large media audience at New York's Waldorf-Astoria hotel in November,
Nedim Sener spoke critically of Turkey's judicial system. Sener is the
author of several books, including an investigation into the unresolved
2007 murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, in which Sener
alleged official involvement. He detailed his own experience - of being
jailed without a verdict for an entire year, then released after an
intense international outcry, but only temporarily. "I am still on
trial and can be imprisoned for 15 more years," he said. "This is
how Turkish justice works - instead of bringing journalist killers
to trial, journalists are tried as terrorists."
In the past few years Turkey went from a country considered a regional
hope to one of regional concern, characterized by an increasingly
shrinking space for free expression. Turkey stands at a crossroads,
and it is not yet too late for it to choose a path of democracy
and tolerance over authoritarianism and censorship. It can start by
releasing the 40 journalists in Turkish prisons as of December 1.
From: Baghdasarian