Prison is an Internship for Journalists
On the 11th of last November, Sami Menteş who is the world’s youngest arrested journalist
has defended himself in the court, seeing his judge for the very first time
after 262 days. The catch phrase of his defence was ‘I plea not guilty, I demand the court to drop
all the charges made against me. I have no affiliation to any organization on
any basis. Turkey held the 98th place in 2005, 148th
place in 2012, and 157th place after Ethiopia, Yemen and Libya in
2013 in ‘freedom of press and democracy’ survey consisting of 179 countries in
the world. I have been imprisoned for 9 months and prisons are considered to be an internship place for journalists in
Turkey, but I believe this has to end for me now’1.The case consists of allegations that may be considered as a ‘joke’ in
the modern world. The photographs taken by him and published in Yurt Newspaper with his name were
considered as evidence since the protest was allegedly held by an illegal
organization. Also his participations to anti – YÖK (Higher Education Committee
in Turkey) protests and to public statements are considered as affiliation to
the alleged organization.
In October 2013, 66 journalists
and 27 distributors were imprisoned. 63 of who were imprisoned due to acting
against anti-terrorism laws and affiliations to illegal organizations. The
cases regarding all the distributors and 36 of the 66 journalists are from
Kurdish minority. 2 journalists were imprisoned due to their acts during Gezi
Park protests, and one was imprisoned due to the suspects on spy allegations.2
According to the report3 prepared by Photography Foundation
(tr: Fotoğraf Vakfı), between the dates of 31st of May and 8th
of July 2013 (during Gezi Park protests),
only in Ankara and İstanbul, the number
of the photographers, who were detained, assaulted and had their photographs
deleted, is 111. According to the Turkey Journalist Syndicate, 36
journalists had reigned and 20 journalists were fired, 14 journalists had taken
mandatory leave during the same time period3.
- http://www.odatv.com/n.php?n=dunyanin-en-gec-tutuklu-gazetecisi-sami-mentes-kendisini-boyle-savundu-1110131200
- http://www.bianet.org/bianet/ifade-ozgurlugu/150511-bia-medya-gozlem-ve-ifade-ozgurlugu-raporu-tam-metin
- http://everywheretaksim.net/tr/baska-haber-onlarca-gazeteci-isten-atildi-polis-siddetine-maruz-kaldi/
- http://www.milliyet.com.tr/basin-ozgurlugune-iliskin-rapor/ombudsman/haberdetay/14.10.2013/1777065/default.htm
- http://www.viewpointonline.net/images/stories/22oct-probing%20headlines%20fp.jpg
No comments:
Post a Comment