Attacks against Journalists on the Rise

The recent increase in attacks against journalists was the main point of the agenda in the meeting of the Turkish Journalists Society (TGC) Executive Committee on 19 October.

The TGC drew attention to the fact that under this aspect, working conditions of journalists became harder and released a referring declaration.

The TGC announced that journalists from all groups and organizations are effected by all kinds of attacks and said, "We will not hesitate to apply legal ways in order to seek the rights of our colleagues and we know it as our duty to inform the public".

Condemning violence against journalists is not enough

The journalists society mentioned the latest case when the head of Bursaspor Club İbrahim Yazıcı slapped and harassed Habertürk newspaper journalist Erhan Telli with the help of his bodyguards. TGC emphasized that such a wrongdoing on humanity and sportsmanship cannot be wiped away just by condemning it.

These 2 points were enforced in the declaration among others:

"The violence against journalists that aim to use their right to provide correct and unbiased information to the public is continuing with an increasing rate and is now widely accepted as a part of inert dangers of journalism".

"It has increased our worries that violence against journalists has found its way to sports fields, whereas we already knew it from occasions such as political party congresses, demonstrations and press conferences. Our concerns have risen since we experience that this has become part of social violence".

BİA: 17 cases of violence in 6 months

In their declaration the TGC also included a report published by the BİA Media Monitoring Board on 14 August.

According to the report, in the months of April, May and June 2 journalists were attacked and 3 were threatened.

As reported by a different Media Monitoring Report from 1 May, 15 journalists were subject to physical attacks in the months of January, February and March. Thus, in the first 6 months of this year 17 journalists encountered violence.

3 examples of attacks on journalists

Siirt Birlik newspaper owner Diya Yarayan is struggling to seek justice after he had been attacked by a group of people disguised in snow masks in front of his house on 17 February. The journalist was severely injured at his head and was treated in hospital for several weeks.

Gerçek newspaper concessionaire Durmuş Tuna was attacked in his hometown of Söke close to the city of Aydın. A few people were detained for the attack and are being tried.

Journalist Sedat Şahinler was assaulted by Justice and Development Party (AKP) local MP Abdullah Pişkin on 8 May. Şahinler works for the Mahmutlar Haber daily in the Mahmutlar resort close to the Antalya district of Alanya. (EÖ/VK)