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Releasing a statement on the occasion of January 10 Working Journalists Day in Turkey today, the Mesopotamia Women Journalists Platform has underlined that January 10 is not a day to be celebrated.
On this occasion, the platform has released an annual report documenting the violations of rights faced by journalist women in Turkey in 2021.
The report has shown that:
In their statement for the press against the backdrop of these findings, the Mesopotamia Women Journalists Platform has recalled that "almost over 90 percent of the newspapers, news agencies and TV channels operating in Turkey have turned into direct media outlets of the government."
Raising concerns that "journalist women are targeted the most among working journalists", the Platform has underlined that "there is a wish to keep them under pressure and make them unable to work."
"As can be seen from the data in our report, journalist women are targeted by police officers/ soldiers and subjected to pressure and violence the most in workplaces, on the street and in reporting news," the Platform has noted, reiterating that several "fellow journalists were battered during news reporting, threatened, handcuffed and detained in a year."
Raising concerns about the imprisonment and court cases faced by the journalists as well, the Platform has stressed that "journalist women have not given up seeking the truth despite all this pressure."
According to the data shared by the Platform, "62 journalists, including six women, are still arrested due to their journalistic activities."
Concluding its statement on Working Journalists Day, the Mesopotamia Women Journalists Platform has said, "Despite everything and just to spite of the male-oppressive mentality, we - journalist women - will never stop seeking after truth; we will raise our organized struggle in the face of bosses', men's, state's violence and pressure." (EMK/SD)