CPJ Deplores Attacks on Press Freedom in Turkey
The U.S.-based media organization CPJ has denounced the increasing attacks on press freedom in Turkey. According to a report published Sunday evening, Turkish authorities are currently waging «one of the world’s largest campaigns against the press.».
A total of 76 journalists are in custody - more than in any other country in the world, writes the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in New York. Most of those imprisoned are accused of terrorist crimes related to their journalistic work.
A good 70 percent of the imprisoned journalists are Kurds who are accused of supporting the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Just last month, a trial began against 44 journalists who, according to the indictment, supported the Kurdish separatists. Some of the accusations against the journalists were reminiscent of the descriptions of totalitarian states in George Orwell's books, the report published on the Internet said.
Criticism of the duration of pretrial detention
CPJ also criticized the long duration of pre-trial detention for accused journalists. In one case, the head of a radio station had to spend six years behind bars without a verdict, it said. Human rights activists and the EU have long complained that Turkey's strict anti-terrorism laws are used by the judiciary to crack down on non-violent forms of protest or even mere criticism of the government.Turkish Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin, according to CPJ, stressed in a statement on the report that it is not the government's intention to prosecute critics for expressing an opinion. However, the right to freedom of expression must be distinguished from punishable verbal support for acts of violence and from "terrorist propaganda," he added. (SDA)
