Free Turkey Media campaign. Stefan Simanowitz. All rights reserved.Introducing the Free Turkey Media campaign of
Amnesty International, PEN, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Article 19, Human
Rights Watch, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Index on Censorship and
others.
Imagine if Christiane Amanpour and Kate Adie were arrested for supporting
‘terrorist organizations’ or if Mehdi Hassan and Oprah Winfrey were sentenced to life in the highest security prison for
‘plotting to overthrow the state’. This may seem wildly far-fetched, but in
Turkey, this is exactly what is happening.
Some of the country’s best-known
and respected journalists are currently behind bars in the world’s biggest
jailer of journalists for the second year in a row. Indeed around one third of all imprisoned journalists in the world are
languishing in Turkish prisons and last week’s newly published Word Press Freedom
Index placed Turkey 157 out of 180 countries sandwiched between Rwanda and
Kazakhstan.
“Working under the constant threat of arrest
and conviction makes life extremely difficult but journalism is our profession.
We have to carry it out,” says Çağdaş Kaplan, editor of the online news portal
Gazete Karınca. “There is a plainly visible truth in Turkey, but there is also
an attempt to hide it from society. Somebody has to speak about it, and that’s
what we are trying to do.”
That truth is a stark one. Under Turkey’s
ongoing state of emergency – declared as a “temporary exceptional measure”
following the failed coup almost two years ago – human rights have been
decimated and the independent media completely hollowed out. Anti-terrorism
laws and trumped-up charges are used to target and silence peaceful, dissent.
Since the coup attempt in July 2016, the
authorities have jailed more than 120 journalists on baseless ‘terrorism
offences’, and media organizations deemed critical of the government have been
culled, with at least 180 outlets closed down.
A climate of fear has descended over the media
landscape and as the symbolic editor-in-chief of the Kurdish daily Özgür
Gündem, Eren Keskin explains: “I try to express my views freely but I am
also acutely aware of thinking twice before speaking or writing.”
"For journalists, Turkey has become a
dungeon,” Hakkı Boltan of the Free Journalists Association which was shut down
in November 2016, tells me. “We had 400 members when we were closed: 78 of them
are now in prison. The one and only way to overcome this situation is the
solidarity of journalists around the world standing with us.”
That international solidarity has been
building over the last year, thanks to the Free Turkey Media campaign, an
initiative by several of the most prominent freedom of expression
organizations. The campaign aims to galvanise the support of journalists in the
same way that the campaign to free three Al Jazeera journalists jailed in Egypt
in 2013-4 did.
“Accusing journalists of aiding terrorists
because they do not tow the regime’s line is the first step to a totalitarian
state,” says Sue Turton who was the force behind the #FreeAJStaff campaign.
“When Peter, Baher and Mohamed were convicted in Egypt we knew our best weapon
was the solidarity of the media all over the world. Journalists in Turkey are
now suffering the same attack on their profession with an all too familiar
crackdown.”
Mohamed Fahmy, one of the al Jazeera
journalists who spent more than 400 days behind bars, tells me how snippets of
news of the campaign to free him lifted him during the darkest moments of his
incarceration in an Egyptian jail. “It made me realize, sitting on the floor of
my dingy cold cell that I was not just fighting for my own freedom. The
unprecedented global support also sent a message to our captors that the world
is watching closely.”
“We were able to make our case emblematic of a
much wider cause – that of media freedom not just in Egypt but everywhere,”
recalls Peter Greste, another of the #FreeAJStaff journalists. “If we can do
that with Turkey, we’ve got a chance of winning the battle.”
To do that in Turkey will not be easy, but the
movement is growing. Today – World Press Freedom Day – is a time to remember
journalists who have been harassed, intimidated or imprisoned for their work.
It is a time to push back against the growing trend among governments that are
locking up journalists and enacting laws that are used to criminalize their
legitimate work. And it is a time to make clear to governments – particularly
in Turkey – that stifling a nation’s media is a wilful act of self-harm which
will have deeply damaging impact on wider society.
Last week after he and 13 of his colleagues
from Turkey’s oldest newspaper, Cumhuriyet,
had been found guilty on terrorism charges, the newspaper’s editor Murat
Sabuncu, spoke out, “Journalists used to
be witnesses of news and history. Now they are acting as witnesses in trials
where their colleagues are being prosecuted,” he said. “I love my
country and I love my profession. I want freedom both in Turkey and around the
world, not for myself, but for all jailed journalists. The only way to do this
is through solidarity.”
Zehra Doğan is serving a jail sentence of
almost 3 years for a painting and news articles she worked on. She is an artist
and editor of the all-women Kurdish news agency, JINHA, shut down in October
2016. “I am in prison but I am not a prisoner,” she wrote from prison last
month. “Every day we are showing that art and journalism cannot not be
incarcerated. We will continue our struggle and we will continue to say
‘journalism is not a crime’ until all journalists are free.”
Find out more about the
campaign here .
Free Turkey Media cartoon. Steve Bell. All rights reserved.
