Police authorities in the western province of Izmir sent a letter to Ege'nin Sesi (The Voice of Aegean) newspaper, requesting the removal of an article related to the rising of tensions on July 2 during a commemoration ceremony for Sivas Massacre.
Signed by Izmir Province Police Commissioner Celal Uzunkaya, the letter was considered as a “blow” to the press freedom by Ege’nin Sesi editor-in-chief Sinan Kara.
Taş: I heard the police officer swear
Sinem Taş, reporter of the article, told bianet on how the incident took place:
“Police intervened a commemoration march dedicated to July 2 Sivas Massacre. After the intervention, a group of journalists remained in the demonstration area. In the meanwhile, a woman reacted to the police and said: You don’t even let us to mourn for our deaths. Upon that, the police officer swore, something that all my colleagues and I heard. But we could only publish it as an allegation as we didn’t have our recording devices on.”
Letter signed by police commissioner
Signed by Police Commissioner on July 4, police authorities denied allegations:
“Reporting content that an individual provocatively said in a group setting and bringing them to the public attention is aiming to abuse a sensitive issue by the medium of media and social media to ignite public to hatred and result in…”
Kara: Letter not legal
Kara said that he has experienced such a situation for the first time in his life:
“The complaint procedure works in a manner. you complain to the prosecutor first. It never came to our attention that police commissioners sent letters like that. We talked to our lawyers, there is no legal explanation to that. We didn’t remove the content anyways. We also published their letter. However, it should be concluded that this is a direct intervention to the press freedom.
What happened?
On July 2, police intervened a commemoration march dedicated to Sivas Massacre in Izmir’s Konak district.
Ege’nin Sesi News Portal claimed that a riot police officer swore at a demonstrator by saying “I will … your dead people!”.
The portal also released a video depicting the tension between police and protestors. (EA/BM)
This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso and its partners and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union. The project's page: Safety Net for European Journalists. A Transnational Support Network for Media Freedom in Italy and South-east Europe.
* Click here to read the article in Turkish.
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