G-9 Journalists Platform's Struggle for Rights

On 3 May, the World Press Freedom Day, members of the G-9 Journalists Organizations Platform applied to the Ankara Public Chief Prosecution in order to find out whether tapping decisions were issued for their names and whether their phones are being wiretapped.

Birgün newspaper journalist Doğan Tılıç and representatives of the Association of European Journalists (AEJ) made a joint press release in front of the Courthouse, saying, "We are experiencing another World Press Freedom Day without any pride in terms of freedoms".

Prison, lay-off, hostile attitude, accreditation ban...

Tılıç described the problems of his profession and also referred to imprisoned journalist Vedat Kurşun, former editorial manager of the Kurdish Azadiya Welat newspaper, who is facing 525 years in jail.

"Unfortunately, we are in a country where journalists are in prison, where one journalist is facing imprisonment of 500 years, where journalists are exposed to violence and where ATV-Sabah employees are laid-off because they attended a strike as their democratic right and where their bosses ignore judicial decisions. The state channel TRT was sacrificed to prejudiced appointments of staff. The political power sees the critical media as opponents, accreditation bans for some of our colleagues are issued by the Prime Ministry and the General Staff. Hundreds of journalists live on the narrow path of unemployment and lack of security in this country".

Tılınç argued that the society's freedom of communication has been eradicated because of widespread telephone tapping and because of labelling journalism as a "dangerous" work due to the relations between the journalists and their sources.

"In regard of all these experiences, we cannot see a reason to celebrate this day as the 'world press freedom day', but we see it as a day to reinforce the journalists' struggle for their rights and freedoms. Thus, today we wanted to know to which extend the people's right to be informed is being fulfilled, so we applied to the prosecution to find out whether our telephones are being tapped or not", Tılınç said.

Tılınç furthermore emphasized, "We as journalist see our struggle for freedom of expression not only as a struggle for freedom for us. We see this as a fight which is being carried out for everybody to access information directly and to live in a democratic society".

Members of the G-9 Platform

Journalists Union of Turkey (TGS), Turkish Journalists' Society (TGC) Ankara Representation, Contemporary Journalists' Association (ÇGD), Parliament Correspondents Association (PMD), Photo Journalists Association (FMD), Economic Journalists Association (EMD), Diplomatic Correspondents Association (DMD), Association of Professional News Cameramen (PHKD), Tourism and Environmental Journalists Association (TURÇEV), Association of European Journalists (AEJ) Turkish Representation, Media and Communication Workers Union (Haber-Sen). (EÖ/VK)