Posts Tagged ‘journalists imprisoned’
April 6th, 2011
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe has published a
report revealing that there are currently 57 journalists
imprisoned in
Turkey. This is more than any other country. The figures in the report come from the findings of the Freedom for Journalists platform, which represents local and national media organisations in Turkey. The report also states that a further ten journalists are awaiting trial. The EU are planning a special
conference in Brussels next month to discuss freedom of expression in Turkey.
March 18th, 2011
A Turkish court
rejected an application for the provisional
release of reporters Ahmet Sik and Nedim Sener on Thursday. They were
arrested on 3 March during raids relating to the alleged
Ergenekon plot. They will now be
imprisoned pending trial on the charge of belonging to a “terrorist organisation”.
March 14th, 2011
Thousands of people gathered in the centre of Istanbul on Sunday to
protest against the
imprisonment of journalists Ahmet Sik and Nedim Sener. The reporters were detained as part of an official crackdown over the alleged
Ergenekon plot. The demonstration was organised by the Freedom for Journalists platform (GÖP) to highlight the
abuse of press freedom in Turkey. They are also campaigning for changes to national laws, in particular the Turkish Criminal Law.
March 11th, 2011
Tursunjan Hezim, Uighur editor of well known website Bilik, has
reportedly been given a seven-year prison sentence. The sentence was handed down for unknown charges at a secret trial in July 2010, but has only been made public now. Hezim had been in detention at a secret location since 2009, after ethnic riots broke out in the Chinese north-western region of Xinjiang.
March 8th, 2011
Two journalists, Nedem Sener and Ahmet Sik, were
sentenced to prison on Sunday pending an investigation into allegations that the military attempted to overthrow the Turkish government in 2003. About 60 journalists are currently imprisoned and thousands face prosecution for their work, reported the Turkish Journalists’ Association.
Meanwhile, there are other concerns about
press freedom in Turkey; 600,000 bloggers cannot access their blogs, after Google’s blogging service, Blogspot, was
blocked in the country, for example. The site was banned by a Turkish court after users showed football matches on their blogs. Digiturk, a satellite TV firm, has exclusive rights to broadcast the matches in Turkey and approached the courts when it became aware of the matches being shown on the blogs.
February 28th, 2011
Two Kurdish journalists have been
sentenced to ten months of imprisonment each, after attending a demonstration in 2008. Vedat Yilidiz, Dicle News Agency, and Lokman Dayan, Güneydoğu Ekspres, have been
convicted of “spreading propaganda for an illegal organisation”. They were among 25 defendants charged with “membership of an illegal organisation”. Both journalists attended the protests in their professional capacities, they said. The demonstration, at which the journalists were
beaten by police, concerned the alleged violence against Abdullah Öcalan, the detained leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
