Journalists at Diyarbakır Bar: We are Here to Remove Disinformation

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We the eight journalists are in Diyarbakır as the second group of News Watch. Our second visit in Diyarabkır was to Diyarbakır Bar.

We were greeted by Bar Administrator Board members Cihan İpek, Servet Özer and Bar General Secretary Abdullah Coşar at the bar managed by Ahmet Özmen after murder of previous president Tahir Elçi.

Polat: We are here to remove disinformation

Evrensel daily Chief Editor, Fatih Polat coming to Diyarbakır with the second group of the News Watch explained the causes of why they are present in the province as journalists and why they visited Diyarbakır Bar as follows:

“Our goal here is to remove disinformation and convey what is happening through every angle to people. Besides, our colleagues undergo similar things as in 1990. This is what has come over Refik Tekin.

“Gun is being held against head of our colleagues in the East while they are being threatened with life imprisonment in the West. We know we will never be free like that”.

Özmen: 198 civilians killed

Özmen has expressed that journalists’ watch has caused a stir for both themselves and the journalists in the region.

Özmen noting the curfews are different than the ones in 1990s has made the following statement as to interlocutory injunction demanded for curfews rejected by the European Court of Human rights (ECtHR).

“What matters is not decision of ECtHR but Turkey’s plea. Besides, ECtHR has dismissed the interlocutory injunction without prejudice. So, the ECtHR hasn’t ruled that there there is no violation, but emphasized that the violations will be fixed. Turkey carried out lobbying activities”.

Özmen stating 198 civilians killed in cities under curfew of who 39 are children, expressed that curfew doesn’t merely restrain a right but violates right of people in a region which is contrary to ECtHRE decisions.

News Watch of the journalists will continue tomorrow as well.

Pınar Öğünç from Cumhuriyet daily, Agos weekly Chief Editor Yetvart Danzikyan, Mesut Bayram from Sol Haber Portalı (Left News Portal), freelance journalist Tuğba Tekerek, journalist-writer Fehim Işık, Zeynep Yüncüler from BirGün daily, Elif Akgül from bianet, and Evrensel daily Chief Editor Fatih Polat take place in the second group of the News Watch. (EA/TK)