28 Apr 17 | Index in the Press
The press freedom situation in the United States is worsening not only because of President Trump’s anti-press rhetoric but because of a constellation of factors including arrests, detainment, lawsuits, physical violence and outright censorship, according to a new report. Read the full article
28 Apr 17 | Africa, News and features, Zimbabwe
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
“I was arrested in Mufakose and severely assaulted by the police for inciting people to demonstrate,” says Linda Masarira, a Zimbabwean human rights activist and director of the Zimbabwean Women in Politics Alliance, who was convicted under the country’s anti-protest laws last year.
The 34-year-old mother of five has emerged as a leading figure in the fight against president Robert Mugabe’s repressive government, a role which has made her a regular target of the authorities.
Recent protests in Zimbabwe represent a key turning point for a nation burdened by widespread unemployment, poverty and hyperinflation. Following his accession to the presidential post — the first leader since Zimbabwe gained its independence in 1980 — Mugabe has pushed through a number of controversial reforms, including the land redistribution programme implemented after the turn of the century. This had a dire effect on the country’s economy. “Since 2000, life has deteriorated by the day in Zimbabwe,” says Masarira. “By the time we reached 2007, everything was in a deplorable state and someone had to do something.”
Linda Masarira
According to a report by the development organisation Hivos, instances of violence against women in Zimbabwe rose significantly from the year 2000, sparked by the country’s “political authoritarianism” and “unprecedented economic decline”. Such violence was often politically motivated, taking the form of assault and sexual violence, and making it increasingly difficult for the women’s movement in operation at the time to function.
As well as her general opposition towards Zimbabwe’s current political regime, Masarira maintains a particular focus on issues surrounding women’s rights. In April 2016 the campaigner led a demonstration against Harare City Council following the murder of three girls whose bodies were found dumped in the suburbs of the city. She also organised a successful protest with ZWPA for the safe return of Zimbabwean women trafficked to Kuwait. After sending a petition to the Kuwaiti embassy, the women were returned to Zimbabwe within two months.
Despite the protests Masarira has been involved with thus far, the activist is well aware of the numerous difficulties women face when speaking out against injustice in Zimbabwe. “Any female politician or activist is labelled all sorts of names and discriminated [against] for wanting to behave like a man. The government hasn’t made it any easier for women to freely participate in civil and political matters as the playing ground is uneven and tainted with violence.”
The poor treatment of Zimbabwean women is a problem recognised by many. Magodonga Mahlangu, the leader of activist organisation Women of Zimbabwe Arise, has herself been arrested 70 times for speaking out against the authorities, although she has never been convicted.
“Zimbabwe is a patriarchal society and has a very repressive regime,” she says. “I had to deal with a society that thought my struggle was not acceptable for a woman and the system beat, arrested and detained me as I am perceived to be a threat to society.”
Mahlangu says that the difficulties faced by Zimbabwean women in challenging injustice were worsened by poverty, familial responsibilities and the widely held view that “a woman’s place is in the kitchen”. Mahlangu, who is frequently accused by Zimbabwean police officers of misleading the country’s women, has refused to accept the status quo; namely that women should always be obedient and never question.
“The use of strategic nonviolence and understanding how to deal and overcome fear is the only way we can change the current situation,” Mahlangu says.
In addition to her support of women’s rights, Masarira has engaged in a number of other public protests. June 2016 saw the #16DayOccupation, during which activists demonstrated outside Africa Unity Square in the Zimbabwean capital of Harare. Masarira, alongside fellow activist Lynette Mudehewe, occupied Africa Unity Square with many others to mark their dissatisfaction over a number of issues including Zimbabwe’s economic climate, rampant corruption, high unemployment levels, poor health care facilities and human rights violations.
Masarira says that following the demonstration, she and other protesters were ambushed by military police on 5 June 2016. Her finger was broken during the attack and activists had their phones taken. They were arrested on false charges of obstruction of justice on 10 June 2016 but later released on bail.
On 6 July 2016, Masarira was arrested for her involvement in a national shutdown, fronted by pastor Evan Mawarire’s #ThisFlag movement and Tajamuka (meaning “we are fed up”), an anti-government pressure group in opposition to Mugabe’s regime, of which Masarira is a founding member.
Despite the many protests that took place before Mawarire’s video, it was the passionate appeal made to the Zimbabwean people by the pastor-turned-human rights campaigner that brought activism to the forefront, encouraging millions across Zimbabwe to challenge the corrupt activities of the government.
Mawarire, whose remarks about the government led him to flee to the USA over fears surrounding his family’s safety, was arrested upon his return to Zimbabwe earlier this year. A recent statement by human rights organisation Amnesty International says that Zimbabwean authorities are looking to “make an example out of Pastor Evan Mawarire”, sending “a clear message to anyone who dares dissent”.
During the national shutdown, operations all over the Zimbabwean capital were brought to a halt in protest against social and economic grievances in the southern African nation. Masarira was severely assaulted by the police for her role in encouraging the demonstrations. She was charged with obstruction of the free flow of vehicles and pedestrians and remained in jail for 87 days, the authorities arguing that she was a state security threat. Masarira was physically and psychologically abused throughout her detention period. After leading protests among female inmates in opposition to poor prison conditions, the pro-democracy advocate was forced to stay in solitary confinement for 10 days. Her detention was later deemed illegal.
Following her release in September 2016, Masarira was convicted and sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, with a seven-month suspended sentence. The remainder of her sentence was converted to 385 hours of community service and Masarira has since appealed against her conviction and sentence.
In spite of the difficulties she has encountered in speaking out under the current political regime, Masarira vows to continue protesting against the violation of human rights and urges her fellow Zimbabweans to do the same.
“Freedom doesn’t come on a silver platter,” she says. “The future is brighter with an empowered citizenry who know their rights and can stand up against the government demanding transparency and accountability.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1493369816086-07ad279a-23c0-0″ taxonomies=”173, 9019″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
28 Apr 17 | Index in the Press
Taha avoids giving his last name to journalists, but not out fear of the Sudanese government, whose harassment he fled in 2015. “I don’t want any of the people I worked with to know I’m here,” he tells Al Jazeera, writing by instant messaging from a temporary residence for refugees in the French city of Calais. Read the full article
27 Apr 17 | Index in the Press
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has published the 2017 rankings for the World Press Freedom Index – a system for rating the freedom of the media and journalists across the world. Read the full article
27 Apr 17 | Digital Freedom, Index Reports, Press Releases
Threats to media freedom in the United States go far beyond the high-profile attacks on news outlets made by President Donald Trump, a new study shows.
The study – by international freedom of expression organization Index on Censorship – examined a range of threats to the independence and standing of the media in the period leading up to the US presidential election and in the months following.
It found that journalists are increasingly targeted by police, public authorities and the public at large, making it increasingly hard for the press and broadcasters to properly investigate and expose corruption and wrongdoing and hold those in power to account.
“Freedom of the press is the cornerstone of democracy,” Index on Censorship chief executive Jodie Ginsberg said. “Yet even in the United States, where this freedom is enshrined in the constitution, that freedom is under threat.”
Examples of attacks on the press include the arrest and detention of journalists covering protests, online harassment, physical assaults, and the branding of factual reporting by media outlets that high-ranking officials – including the President – do not like as “fake news”.
This survey reviewed over 150 publicly reported incidents of media freedom violations that occurred in the United States between 30 June 2016 and 28 February 2017.
The report is available on the web and in PDF format.
For further information, please contact Sean Gallagher at [email protected]
Notes for editors
Index on Censorship is a UK-based non-profit organisation that publishes the work of censored writers and artists and campaigns against censorship worldwide.
The study is based on a non-exhaustive survey of press freedom incidents recorded publicly between 30 June 2016 and 28 February 2017. It uses criteria developed and employed by Index’s European media freedom monitoring project: Mapping Media Freedom. Launched in May 2014, Mapping Media Freedom monitors the media landscape in 42 European and neighbouring countries.
Index on Censorship is part of a coalition of organisations who will later this year launch a news site to track press freedom violations in the United States. The coalition includes Index, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press, the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and Reporters Without Borders
27 Apr 17 | Digital Freedom, News and features, Turkey Uncensored, Volume 46.01 Spring 2017
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Cumhuriyet reporter Canan Coşkun
Credit: Antonin Weber
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”Canan Coşkun, a journalist at daily newspaper Cumhuriyet who faces two upcoming trials for her reporting, talks about her attitude to the dangers of life as a reporter in Turkey, in the Spring 2017 issue of Index on Censorship magazine” google_fonts=”font_family:Libre%20Baskerville%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700|font_style:400%20italic%3A400%3Aitalic”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Every two to three weeks recently, I have seen off a colleague leaving the courthouse for prison or snatched a few moments with a deeply missed, and now detained, workmate in the shadow of the authorities. But we aren’t afraid of this dungeon darkness because we journalists are only doing our jobs.
I have been a court reporter for Cumhuriyet since 2013, so I spend the large majority of my working life in the courts. We all have moments we cannot forget from our working lives. For me, one such day was 5 November 2016, the day when 10 of our writers and managers were arrested. I was waiting for the court’s decision right behind the barrier in the court building, and the moment I heard the decision I felt a flush of pride for our 10 writers and managers, followed by anger and deep depression for my friends.
I felt proud because the fact that they had been arrested for their journalism had been mentioned in the court’s decision. In listing examples of our reporting as the reason for the arrests, the judge took the government’s insistence that “they were not arrested for their journalism” and threw it out of the window. I felt anger and sadness because we were sending our friends off to an indefinite spell of captivity. The police would not even allow us to say goodbye to our colleagues who were only 30 or 40 metres away behind a barrier. But among the many feelings I had, fear was not one of them. When the attacks on journalism are on this scale, fear becomes a luxury.
After our 10 colleagues were arrested, many journalists from around Europe began visiting our newspaper’s offices. Our foreign counterparts wanted to hear about what had happened and how we felt, and they all had the same question: “Are you afraid?” From November onwards, arrests of journalists have continued at a regular pace. But just as on that day, my answer to that question today is short and sweet: “No!”
We are not afraid, because we are doing our work and we are concerned only with our work. We are not afraid, because we too feel as if we have been in Silivri prison with our colleagues for these long months. We are not afraid, because very little difference remains between being in and out of prison. We are not afraid, because the heads of our jailed colleagues are held high. We are not afraid, because Fethullah Gülen, the exiled cleric accused by the government of being behind last year’s failed coup attempt, was not once our “partner in crime”. We are not afraid, because the Cumhuriyet that governments of every era have tried to silence has only reported, is only reporting and will only report.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_icon icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left” color=”custom” align=”right” custom_color=”#dd3333″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_custom_heading text=”When the attacks on journalism are on this scale, fear becomes a luxury” google_fonts=”font_family:Libre%20Baskerville%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700|font_style:400%20italic%3A400%3Aitalic”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Ahmet Şık, a reporter at my newspaper, has been under formal arrest since December 2016. Back in 2011, along with former military chief of staff İlker Başbuğ and many soldiers, police, journalists and academics, he spent more than a year in prison in relation to the “Ergenekon” case. The accusation was that they were attempting to overthrow the government.
Şık is currently under arrest accused of conspiring with the Gülen movement. But Turkey’s justice system is such that the case in which Şık was arrested in 2011 still continues, and this gave us a chance to see him in court on 15 February. I waited outside the courtroom doors and when they opened all I saw inside was a face smiling with hope: he was able to see his friends for the first time in months. Although Şık is a much more experienced journalist than I am, his desk in the office was close to mine and I missed him.
At that hearing, he summarised today’s fight to carry out journalism under the state of emergency, saying: “The story of those who think they have power, and who use this power to persecute journalists is as long as journalism itself.”
Last December, six journalists, including some of my friends, were held for 24 days in an inquiry into the hacking of minister Berat Albayrak’s emails. (Albayrak is President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s son-in-law.) Three of these journalists were later formally arrested by the courts. During this time, detained journalist Mahir Kanaat became a father, but he was unable to see his child. Fellow detainee Tunca Öğreten was not given the right to send and receive letters, or see anyone except his close relatives. He had to propose to his girlfriend via his lawyers.
Recently, I listened to one of these journalists relate a memory from his time in court. Having had their faith in justice shaken, they instead turned to superstition in the courtroom in a bid to be set free. Metin Yoksu, a freed journalist, said three of them had sat close to the courtroom exit and had replaced their shoelaces – which had been taken from them – with laces they had made from bits of water bottles. The result: those who were freed were those who had sat near the exit door.
Trust in Turkey’s justice system has fallen so far that we now rely on our superstitions. How depressing.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
This article is part of the spring 2017 issue of Index on Censorship magazine. You can read about all of the other content in the magazine here.
Journalist Canan Coşkun is a court reporter at Cumhuriyet. She is currently charged with defaming Turkishness, the Republic of Turkey and the state’s bodies and institutions in one of her articles. Her article covered the story of a truck full of weapons hidden under onions. The second charge is that she depicted the police who combat terrorism as a target, for a story about Turkish Kurds being arrested.
Turkey Uncensored is an Index on Censorship project to publish a series of articles from censored Turkish writers, artists and translators.
Translated by John Butler
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”From the Archives”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”80569″ img_size=”213×289″ alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0306422016657010″][vc_custom_heading text=”We are journalists, not terrorists” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:24|text_align:left” link=”url:http%3A%2F%2Fjournals.sagepub.com%2Fdoi%2Fpdf%2F10.1177%2F0306422016657010|||”][vc_column_text]June 2016
Valeria Costa-Kostritsky looks at a developing trend where journalists are being accused of terrorism and arrested for reporting the news.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”89086″ img_size=”213×289″ alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0306422013489932″][vc_custom_heading text=”Turkey’s media: a polluted landscape
” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:24|text_align:left” link=”url:http%3A%2F%2Fjournals.sagepub.com%2Fdoi%2Fpdf%2F10.1177%2F0306422013489932|||”][vc_column_text]July 2013
As protests continue in Istanbul, journalist Yavuz Baydar calls for the media to resist government pressure to filter the news.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”80569″ img_size=”213×289″ alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0306422016657030″][vc_custom_heading text=”Scoops and troops: Turkey’s future ” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:24|text_align:left” link=”url:http%3A%2F%2Fjournals.sagepub.com%2Fdoi%2Fpdf%2F10.1177%2F0306422016657030|||”][vc_column_text]June 2016
Writers from acclaimed independent newspaper Radikal on its closure and the shape of Turkish investigative journalism today.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_custom_heading text=”The Big Squeeze” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:24|text_align:left” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indexoncensorship.org%2Fnewsite02may%2Fmagazine|||”][vc_column_text]The spring 2017 issue of Index on Censorship magazine looks at multi-directional squeezes on freedom of speech around the world.
Also in the issue: newly translated fiction from Karim Miské, columns from Spitting Image creator Roger Law and former UK attorney general Dominic Grieve, and a special focus on Poland.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”88788″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.indexoncensorship.org/newsite02may/magazine”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_custom_heading text=”Subscribe” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:24|text_align:left” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indexoncensorship.org%2Fnewsite02may%2Fsubscribe%2F|||”][vc_column_text]In print, online. In your mailbox, on your iPad.
Subscription options from £18 or just £1.49 in the App Store for a digital issue.
Every subscriber helps support Index on Censorship’s projects around the world.
SUBSCRIBE NOW[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
27 Apr 17 | Events
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”90019″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.hayfestival.com/”][vc_column_text]A conversation with Madeleine Thien, the Canadian novelist whose Do Not Say We Have Nothing was shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker, and who is now publishing her early novel Certainty. Her humane and exacting writing often explores the Asian diaspora. She has won many awards including the Governor General’s Award and The Giller Prize. She talks to Jemimah Steinfeld, the deputy editor of Index on Censorship magazine.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
When: Sunday 28 May 2017, 2:30pm
Where: Hay Festival venue Starlight Stage
Tickets: £7.30 from Hay Festival
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
27 Apr 17 | Events
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”90019″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.hayfestival.com/”][vc_column_text]An interview with the musician and activist Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, who was arrested after her punk band’s 2012 performance in a Moscow cathedral. She was convicted of ‘hooliganism motivated by religious hatred’ and sentenced to two years penal servitude. Nadya Tolokno now has permanent residency in Canada, from where she continues to protest human rights abuses.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
When: Saturday 27 May 2017, 10pm
Where: Hay Festival venue Baillie Gifford Stage
Tickets: £10.30 from Hay Festival
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
27 Apr 17 | Events
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”90019″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.hayfestival.com/”][vc_column_text]Christina Lamb, Helena Kennedy, Rachael Jolley and Joan Bakewell
In a tribute to the late frontline journalist Sue Lloyd-Roberts and her posthumously-published book, a panel of three exceptional and indefatigable heroes talk to Joan Bakewell about women reporting on war. Lamb is the Foreign Correspondent of The Sunday Times and the author of Farewell Kabul and The Girl from Aleppo. Kennedy is a world-renowned Human Rights lawyer. Rachael Jolley is editor of Index on Censorship.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
When: Saturday 27 May 2017, 8:30pm
Where: Hay Festival venue Baillie Gifford Stage
Tickets: £8.30 from Hay Festival
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
27 Apr 17 | Mapping Media Freedom, News and features, Turkey, Turkey Uncensored
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
What is usually the first pledge made by a politician who has won an election in his victory speech?
Erdogan’s was the death penalty.
Before the result of the 16 April referendum, which ended neck and neck, was even clear he came out onto the balcony and gave the “good news” to his supporters shouting “we want the death penalty!” that they would soon get their wish.
By abolishing the death penalty at the start of the 2000s, Turkey overcame an important obstacle in its negotiations with Europe. Now Erdogan is planning to bring back the death penalty, bombarding relations with Europe which are already at breaking point. And it was not just this. Two days after the referendum the government took the decision to extend the State of Emergency by three months. The extension of this emergency regime, which has been in force since 15 July 2016, was a concrete response to those expecting Erdogan to loosen the reins after the referendum. Sadly, Turkey now awaits not a time of relative peace, but a much more intense and chaotic period of repression.
There are a few different reasons for this.
The first is that it has become understood that Erdogan actually lost the referendum… Had the Supreme Electoral Board not taken the decision to count invalid votes as valid before the voting had even ended, Erdogan would not now be an executive president: he would be a leader who had lost a referendum. Since that day, hundreds of thousands of people have protested in the streets, shouting that their votes had been stolen. These protests have frightened the government, afraid they might turn into the Gezi uprisings of four years before. This is one reason for the increase in repression…
Another reason is that Erdogan has lost the big cities for the first time… The AKP, which has held onto key cities such as Istanbul and Ankara throughout its 15 years of power, has been beaten in these cities for the first time in this referendum. If we consider that Istanbul is the city in which Erdogan began his political career, it’s possible to say that his fall has also begun there. This is something that Erdogan will be losing sleep over…
Add to this disgruntlement an economy in the doldrums, especially with the wiping out of tourism revenues, and the withdrawal of the support from European capitals that had been given in pursuit of a refugee agreement, and you can understand why Erdogan is under so much pressure.
Now his only support comes from the Trump regime, which needs their help in Syria, from international capital which prefers authoritarian power to democratic chaos and from the social democratic opposition, still searching for a solution through a legal system that has long ago passed into Erdogan’s hands…
Can Erdogan balance out his shunning by Europe with the relationships he is striving to build with Trump and Putin?
By being part of the Syrian war, can he undo the tensions that are mounting at home?
Can he rein in the growing Kurdish problem by keeping jailed the co-presidents and around 10 MPs belonging to the HDP, the political representatives of the Kurds?
Can he hide the repression, lawlessness, and theft by jailing 150 journalists, silencing hundreds of media organs, throwing the foreign press out of the country and even punishing those who tweet?
I don’t think so.
All the data points to this last referendum being the beginning of the end for Erdogan. He will not go quietly, because he can guess what will happen to him if he loses power. But from here on in, he will pay a heavy price for every repressive act.
Just before the referendum, Theresa May visited Turkey and, turning a blind eye to the human rights violations, signed a contract for the construction of warplanes. Things in Ankara may have changed a great deal by the time those planes are ready.
Maybe in London too…
Yet those in Turkey fighting at the cost of their lives for democracy, a free media, and gender equality will never forget that the leader of a country accepted as “the cradle of these principles” did not even once mention them when she arrived in Ankara to trade arms.
Erdoğan için sonun başlangıcı
Seçim kazanmış bir siyasetçinin zafer konuşmasında ilk vaadi ne olabilir?
Erdoğan’ınki idam cezası oldu.
16 Nisan’da yapılan ve neredeyse başabaş sona eren referandumun kesin sonuçları açıklanmadan, sarayının balkonuna çıktı ve “İdam isteriz” diye bağıran taraftarlarına, istediklerine çok yakında kavuşacakları “müjdesini” verdi.
Türkiye, idam cezasını 2000’lerin başında kaldırarak, Avrupa ile müzakerelerin önündeki önemli bir engeli aşmıştı. Şimdi Erdoğan, idam cezasını yeniden getirerek Avrupa ile zaten kopma noktasındaki ilişkileri bombalamaya hazırlanıyor.
Sadece o da değil, referandumdan iki gün sonra Hükümet, Olağanüstü Hal’i üç ay daha uzatma kararı aldı. 15 Temmuz darbe girişiminden beri uygulanan sıkıyönetim rejiminin uzatılması, referandumdan sonra Erdoğan’ın ipleri gevşeteceğini bekleyenlere somut bir cevap oldu.
Ne yazık ki, Türkiye’yi huzur değil, çok daha ağır ve kaotik bir baskı dönemi bekliyor.
Bunun birkaç nedeni var:
Birincisi, referandumu Erdoğan’ın aslında kaybettiğinin anlaşılması… Henüz sandıklar kapanmadan, Yüksek Seçim Kurulu’nun aldığı bir kararla, geçersiz oylar geçerli sayılmasa, Erdoğan şu an Başkan değil, referandum kaybetmiş bir liderdi. O günden beri, yüzbinlerce insan caddelerde oylarının çalındığını haykırarak protesto gösterisi yapıyor. Bu protestoların, 4 yıl önceki Gezi ayaklanmasına dönüşmesi, iktidarı korkutuyor. Baskının artırılmasının bir nedeni bu…
Bir başka neden, Erdoğan’ın ilk kez büyük kentleri kaybetmiş olması… 15 yıllık iktidarı boyunca İstanbul, Ankara gibi kilit kentleri elinde tutan AKP, ilk kez bu referandumda bu şehirlerde yenildi. İstanbul’un, Erdoğan’ın siyasi kariyerine başladığı kent olduğu düşünüldüğünde, düşüşünün de oradan başladığını söylemek mümkün. Bu da, Erdoğan’ın uykularını kaçıran bir unsur…
Bu huzursuzluğa bir de özellikle turizm gelirlerinin sıfırlanmasıyla düşüşe geçen ekonomiyi ve Avrupa başkentlerinin mülteci anlaşması uğruna verdikleri desteği çekmesini ekleyin; Erdoğan’ın neden bu kadar sıkıştığını anlarsınız.
Şimdi tek dayanağı, Suriye’de kendisine ihtiyaç duyan Trump rejimi, demokratik bir kaos yerine otoriter bir istikrarı tercih eden uluslararası sermaye ve çareyi çoktan Erdoğan’ın eline geçmiş yargı sisteminde arayan sosyal demokrat muhalefet …
Erdoğan, Avrupa’dan dışlanışını, Trump ya da Putin’le kurmaya çabaladığı ilişkiyle dengeleyebilir mi?
Suriye savaşına dahil olarak, içerde yaşadığı gerilemeyi tersine çevirebilir mi?
Kürtlerin siyasi temsilcisi olan HDP’nin eşbaşkanlarını ve 10’u aşkın milletvekilini hapiste tutarak tırmanan Kürt sorununu dizginleyebilir mi?
150 gazeteciyi hapsedip, yüzlerce medya organını susturarak, yabancı basını ülkeden kovup tweet atanları bile cezalandırarak, yaşanan baskıları, hukuksuzlukları, hırsızlıkları saklayabilir mi?
Bence hayır.
Bütün veriler, son referandumun Erdoğan için sonun başlangıcı olduğunu ortaya koyuyor. Düşerse başına gelecekleri tahmin ettiği için kolay çekilmeyecektir. Ancak bundan sonra her yapacağı baskı için ağır bedel ödeyecektir.
Başbakan Theresa May’in tam referandum öncesi yaptığı Türkiye ziyaretinde, insan hakları ihlallerini görmezden gelerek yapımına imza attığı savaş uçakları hazır olduğunda, Ankara’da işler hayli değişmiş olabilir.
Belki Londra’da da…
Yine de demokrasi için, özgür medya için, laiklik için, kadın-erkek eşitliği için canı pahasına mücadele veren Türkiyeliler, “bu ilkelerin beşiği” kabul edilen ülkenin liderinin silah ticareti için geldiği Ankara’da, bu ilkeleri ağzına bile almamasını asla unutmayacaktır.
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
Turkey Uncensored is an Index on Censorship project to publish a series of articles from censored Turkish writers, artists and translators.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”12″ style=”load-more” items_per_page=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1493982838323-862a9fef-6b14-3″ taxonomies=”8607″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
26 Apr 17 | Digital Freedom, Events, Turkey
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”89947″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Join Index on Censorship, English PEN, Amnesty International UK, Reporters Sans Frontières, PEN International and the Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation for our vigil outside the Turkish Embassy in London, in protest over the detention of journalists and writers in Turkey. The London protest is one of several taking place at Turkish embassies around the world on 3 May, World Press Freedom Day.
Turkey is currently the world’s biggest jailer of journalists: one third of all imprisoned journalists in the world are being held in Turkish prisons, the vast majority waiting to be brought to trial. Meanwhile, more than 160 media outlets have been closed.
Let us know if you’re coming and invite your friends via the Facebook event page and please share details of the vigil on Twitter with the hashtag #FreeTurkeyMedia
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_cta h2=”TAKE ACTION” h2_font_container=”color:%23dd3333″ h2_use_theme_fonts=”yes” shape=”square” use_custom_fonts_h2=”true”]Show your support on social media
We are asking fellow journalists, writers, and supporters of freedom of expression to show their support for the many journalists and writers currently imprisoned and on trial in Turkey. Please follow @FreeTurkeyMedia on Twitter and show your support by tweeting a photo with a sign reading #FreeTurkeyMedia #GazetecilikSuçDeğildir
Write to the authorities
You can send a letter via Amnesty’s website to Minister of Justice Bekir Bozdağ calling for the release of our imprisoned colleagues.
Please also write to the Turkish authorities
- Calling for all detained writers and journalists to have access to lawyers and to be released if they are not to be charged with a recognisably criminal offence and tried promptly in accordance with international fair trial standards;
- Calling on the authorities not to use the state of emergency to crack down on peaceful dissent, civil society, media and education.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Cumhurbaşkanlığı Külliyesi
06560 Beştepe-Ankara
Tel : (+90 312) 525 55 55
Fax : (+90 312) 525 58 31
E-mail: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RecepTayyipErdogan
Twitter: @RT_Erdogan
Süleyman Soylu
Minister of Interior Affairs
Ministry of Interior Affairs
T.C. İçişleri Bakanlığı, Bakanlıklar / Ankara, Republic of Turkey
Tel: (+90 312) 422 40 00
E-mail: [email protected]
Binali Yıldırım
Prime Minister
Çankaya Mah. Ziaur Rahman Cad. Çankaya / Ankara
Tel: (+90 312) 403 50 00
Fax: (+90 312) 422 10 00[/vc_cta][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”89946″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row]
26 Apr 17 | Mapping Media Freedom, News and features, United Kingdom
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Supporters of Shun the S*n during a demonstration in Liverpool City Centre in February 2017. Credit: Shun the S*n
On 26 April 2016, the people of Liverpool got the moment they had been fighting for nearly three decades, as the jury at an independent inquest found that fans of Liverpool Football Club were in no way to blame for the 1989 Hillsborough stadium disaster in which 96 died.
After two years in court, the inquest revealed that South Yorkshire Police had failed to responsibly manage the crowd of 54,000, as the then all-standing stadium in Sheffield filled up for an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, resulting in a crush in one end of the stadium. Among the dead were dozens of children and teenagers. The new inquest found that the police had then deliberately attempted to shift blame onto the fans, covering up their mistakes and claiming the deaths had been caused by drunken misbehaviour.
For 27 years the Hillsborough Justice Campaign, composed largely of families of the victims, rejected the official version of events, and “Justice for the 96” became a rallying cry for the whole city.
But one year on from the exonerating inquest verdict, a parallel campaign has only gathered momentum. Though rarely as centralised as the HJC, its message is simple: “Don’t Buy The Sun”.
On 19 April 1989, four days after the disaster, The Sun splashed its front page with the now infamous headline “The Truth”, under which it accused that Liverpool fans at the stadium had picked the pockets of the dead, beaten up a police officer attempting to resuscitate a victim, and even “urinated on the brave cops”. Later revealed to be part of a concerted smear campaign, this was taken as a deeply hurtful insult not just to the dead, but to the entire city of Liverpool, and a three-decade boycott against the UK’s highest-selling newspaper began.
The boycott became a unifying cause for the city. Most newsagents refused to continue selling The Sun, leaving only supermarket chains to display it on less visible shelves. Fans share videos on social media mischievously throwing copies they do find into the trash or covering them up with other papers. Footballers from Liverpool and their local rivals Everton are applauded for refusing to engage with its journalists, even long after they have moved on to other teams. Even its name is treated as a dirty word, with the Liverpool Echo newspaper and several campaign groups referring to it as “The S*n”, and locals calling it “the rag”.
In 2017, with the real truth now finally out in the open, the movement is more active than ever. Taxis roam Liverpool freshly wrapped in liveries declaring “The S*n – Not Welcome In Our City”. In February Liverpool Football Club revoked The Sun’s press credentials from all club facilities and activities, including home games at their Anfield stadium, effectively banning them.
One newsagent, who gave his name as Manoz, recently moved to Liverpool from London and set up shop, unaware of the history of the boycott. He decided to stop selling The Sun in February after receiving complaints from customers.
“We don’t want to hurt their feelings or anything,” he told Index. “I know it’s a long time ago but the people here are not forgetting about it. They were coming in and saying why, and that’s why we stopped it. It’s part of living in this city.”
Gary Gaze is the founder of the largest anti-Sun campaign group on Merseyside, Shun the S*n. An avid follower of Liverpool FC for most of his life, the 1989 FA Cup semi-final was the only away game he missed that season. Amidst the modern panic over so-called “fake news”, Gaze is certain that The Sun’s misleading Hillsborough coverage had long-term material effects, making the HJC’s task more difficult by turning public opinion against the victims.
“I’ve got an open mind, I know some people don’t like football or whatever, but it’s not all about football. It’s about people from Liverpool being tarred with a brush,” he told Index. “They were lies, and people have been affected by it for a long, long time.”
On asking newsagents to stop selling The Sun, Gaze, who was inspired to become an activist by the determination of the HJC’s fight for the truth, said: “We just have to educate people and let them know why people don’t read it, and I think people realise that if they continue to sell it, it’s going to affect their profits. People aren’t going to want to go into shops that sell it.”
[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_icon icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-globe” color=”black” background_style=”rounded” size=”lg” align=”right” css_animation=”fadeIn” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indexoncensorship.org%2Fnewsite02may%2Fcampaigns%2Fpress-regulation%2F|||”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]This article is part of an ongoing series exploring media freedom in the UK.
Index on Censorship monitors media freedom around the world. Find out more.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]New developments during the weekend of the disaster’s 28th anniversary saw Kelvin MacKenzie, the editor who oversaw The Sun’s Hillsborough coverage, make new derogatory comments about the city in his column in the newspaper, also comparing Everton player Ross Barkley to a gorilla after he was punched in an unprovoked attack in a nightclub. The club responded by following their neighbours in banning The Sun from all club premises and Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson reported MacKenzie to the police over what he called “racial slurs” and hate speech, on account of Barkley’s Nigerian heritage. Responding to the outrage, The Sun suspended MacKenzie.
The day before The Sun published MacKenzie’s comments, Gaze had told Index that he thought a genuine attempt by The Sun to make amends would have been received well by the city, but that they had shown their true colours through years of half-hearted apologies and omissions. After the latest controversy, he believes the boat has sailed.
“Right around the time people are remembering and mourning the 96, they do this,” he said. “It might just be bad timing but I think they know exactly what they are doing. Any apology now is sort of induced. They’ve been forced to make an apology but it’s not genuine, and it’s entirely too late.”
The most remarkable thing about recent anti-Sun activity is that it is no longer confined to Merseyside. Petitions have sprung up from football fans around the UK calling on their clubs, or even the entire Premier League, to join Liverpool and Everton’s ban in solidarity, and semi-professional club Sutton United was criticised for accepting sponsorship from The Sun’s betting platform, SunBets, for their FA Cup tie against Arsenal.
Gaze was supportive, but diplomatic, on the spread of the Don’t Buy The Sun mantra. “As far as I’m concerned people should all hate the rag. But I don’t think we’ve got a right to say to say to other cities ‘don’t buy it, don’t read it’. That’s out of our hands.” Referring to other more recent controversies such as the phone-hacking scandal, he added: “A boycott is what they deserve.”
Of course, all this talk of preventing the sale of a newspaper has led to accusations of press censorship. The Spectator’s Roger Alton wrote that Liverpool FC being allowed to ban The Sun’s reporters would have “savage implications” for freedom of the press, and claimed it was impossible to hold “even a sliver of a divergent view” of the disaster.
Locals do not care for the suggestion. Richie O’Brien, a taxi driver, wrote in an open response on Facebook: “Making stuff up and publishing pictures of semi-naked teenagers then passing it off as news is clearly not breaking any laws in this country, and it is entirely down to the individual consumer whether they buy into their poisonous drivel or not. Just as The S*n is totally within its legal rights to do and say the nasty things that it does, it is also everybody’s right to suggest that you don’t buy their product.”
However, the line between refusing to support, and refusing to allow The Sun’s presence is a point of contention. When Merseytravel, the public body that operates trains and buses on Merseyside, asked its vendors to join the boycott in September 2016, it was condemned by the Society of Editors’ Bob Satchwell who told the BBC: “No public organisation should be seeking to restrict a perfectly legitimate newspaper.” Liverpool city council unanimously voted to back the boycott, and similar council motions passed in Derry City and Strabane in Northern Ireland, and St Helens, a small town outside Liverpool.
After Liverpool FC instituted its ban in February, Trevor Hicks, president of the Hillsborough Families Support Group and father of two of the younger victims, told The Guardian of the “enormous damage” and distress caused by The Sun since 1989. The club made no statement, but on joining them in April Everton said: “the newspaper has to know that any attack on this city, either against a much-respected community or individual, is not acceptable.”
To the people of Liverpool, and a growing number of people around the UK, the movement against The Sun is symbolic of local pride, solidarity and standing up to an abusive establishment. Activists deny pressuring vendors and readers – Gary Gaze stressed that his interactions were always polite and cordial and that he preferred to support shops that joined the boycott than punish those that didn’t. He was also skeptical of politicians becoming involved.
The Sun remains the best-selling newspaper in the UK, but its near-total absence from a major city is a warning that the right to free press does not guarantee a right to a willing readership.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”12″ style=”load-more” items_per_page=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1493713944624-132ff556-5cc2-2″ taxonomies=”6564″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
