DİSK/Basın-İş underlined in a press statement for the journalists detained and arrested in successive operations that the operations constituted an interference in the election on May 14 and demanded the release of the journalists
Following the arrest of four of the journalists detained in house raids as part of the Diyarbakır-based investigation, Dicle Müftüoğlu, co-chairman of the Dicle Fırat Journalists Association, and Sedat Yılmaz, editor of the Mesopotamia Agency, were detained in another operation today.
Upon the arrest and detention of the journalists, DİSK/Basın-İş convened a press conference.
In a press statement made at the DİSK/Basın-İş Headquarters, it was emphasized that the operations were an interference in the election on May 14. Underlining the growing concerns about reporting and election security in the places where the arrested journalists are located, DİSK/Basın-İş demanded the release of the imprisoned journalists and the abolition of laws restricting press freedom.
The statement made is as follows:
While there are many things that we have to deal with as journalists, to report on ourselves, we have had to deal with ourselves, to write about ourselves for a long time.
There has been much pressure on journalists, on the news, for a long time. This repression has reached the level of almost destroying one of the most fundamental rights, freedom of the press and freedom of expression.
This situation is also seen in the surveys conducted by international institutions every year. Every year, Turkey takes down the freedom of the press and expression, fundamental rights, and freedoms a few notches down.
But now there is a situation worse than what the statistics show. There is a situation that we are experiencing personally. Journalists are being arrested one after other. The number of journalists in prisons has again reached a grave situation. Last year, 16 of our colleagues were arrested in an operation in Diyarbakır and 9 in Ankara. They are still in prison.
This morning, our journalist friends and members Dicle Müftüoğlu and Sedat Yılmaz were taken into custody along with their families. Also, in a Diyarbakır-based operation, several people, including journalists, were detained. Four of our colleagues were arrested. One of the arrested journalists, Beritan Canözer, is a member of our union. Beritan and our other arrested journalist friends told the truth with the news they reported, the photographs they took, and the images they took.
These arrests are a continuation of the systematic repression of Kurdish journalists.
We believe these operations against journalists in the run-up to the elections interfere with the news, election security, and direct elections. We are even more concerned about reporting and election security in the places where our journalist friends who have been arrested are located.
Two weeks later, the election is coming. Our call to all parties is this:Our imprisoned friends should be released immediately.
Past trials of journalists should either be ignored or tried again in truly independent courts.
All laws restricting freedom of the press and freedom of expression should be abolished or reinstated.
MB Sendika.Org News