“The fear climate on press and expression freedom in Turkey is still prominent. The recent rise in the number of layoffs among Turkey’s print media including columnists Mustafa Mutlu, Derya Sazak, Tahir Özyurtseven, Can Dündar demonstrates that the state of emergency is still underway,” Journalists Union of Turkey (TGC) said in a statement.
“Journalists are serving the public right to know the truth. However, they are being choked by a series of challenges including prosecutions, jail threats, as well as layoffs. The fear climate on press and expression freedom in Turkey is still prominent. Especially we see a rising trend on the number of dissident journalist layoffs with the Gezi Resistance. We are reminding one more time that at least 100 of our colleagues were forced to leave their jobs.
"We are protesting the campaign launched by pro-government media organizations against dissident journalist to push them for layoffs.
"We are wishing the immediate removal of this state of emergency on Turkey’s media as the situation is becoming more critical every year.”
This morning, Vatan newspaper announced that it laid off Mustafa Mutlu. (EA/BM)
* Click here to read the original article in Turkish.
