Can Dündar, Erdem Gül at Cumhuriyet Building

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Cumhuriyet daily Chief Editor Can Dündar and its Ankara Representative Erdem Gül went to the building of the newspaper after their 92-day imprisonment which ended by Constitutional Court’s decision of “violation of right”.

According to Cumhuriyet, Dündar and Gül’s statements are as follows:

Erdem Gül: Journalist inspects political authority

“The decision yesterday is a new situation like we will find something again which we lost.

“In fact, freedom of thought, freedom of expression should be normal. They don’t need to be achieved by court ruling, it is already something that should exist. The prices were paid earlier in this country.

“In fact, there shouldn’t be a thing like dissident journalism, journalism is already an activity of inspection. It inspects political authority. While there is political authority, powerful ones, it won’t inspect the weak.

“Since it is an activity of inspection, there shouldn’t be a distinction like dissident journalist, journalist of political authority. However, since let alone criticism, even a normal report can be a subject of accusation, life imprisonment in Turkey, there are many things we have to do.

“We have to continue doing what we do…Since the imprisoned journalists issue continues, we have to carry on writing and walking on this path”.

Can Dündar: I thank Erdoğan…

“Murat had a joke, let me tell it; he was saying that when I became the Chief Editor he had said that ‘Chief Editor and Ankara Representative should communicate around twice a day’. That is what we talked among us but we weren’t supposed to lie together for 24 hours.

“I would like to thank Mr. President; he has created this solidarity. He made the secret they were trying to hide known to the whole world. Seriously, we couldn’t have done this much even if we wanted to.

“We have faced a really serious accusation and become the most favorite spies of Turkey. That is why we are happy.

“Constitutional Court hasn’t just revealed how baseless the accusations directed against us, but also demonstrated how vital and important freedom of the press is”. (EKN/TK)