Turkey

The European Parliament will today debate the situation of journalists in Turkey. Commenting ahead of the debate Greens/EFA co-president Rebecca Harms said:

“The situation of journalists in Turkey, which was bad before the coup, intensifies day by day.

"Thousands of journalists have been dismissed, one hundred press and media companies closed, and over a hundred journalists imprisoned. The internationally renowned journalists and authors Ahmet and Mehmet Altan are an example of this persecution. They were surprisingly accused of being the masterminds behind the coup and are being detained, with very limited rights. The cases of the writer Nasli Erdogan and the authors Sahin and Necmiye Alpay are similarly startling.

“Journalism is not a crime and diversity of opinion is a condition for democracy. We demand that the Turkish government end the arbitrary persecution of journalists in Turkey.”

Green EU-Turkey relations spokesperson Bodil Valero added:

“Violating freedom of speech and freedom of the press is unacceptable. With the situation of journalists in Turkey having deteriorated ever since the attempted coup d'état this summer, it is more important than ever that we give our full support to independent media in Turkey. The Turkish government must restore press freedom and end its persecution of journalists critical of the current regime."

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The "Platform for Independent Journalism" (P24) has published a list of persecuted and imprisoned journalists: http://platform24.org/en/about-us