Journalist Working for Unionization Dismissed After Posters of Jailed Reporters

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Timur Soykan, a journalist who has been striving for journalists' right to unionize at a pro-government media conglomerate, has been dismissed from his post as the news manager of daily Posta.

He has been inviting journalists to unionize with humorous posters he prepared. "Everybody should unionize," he told bianet, addressing journalists.

Prior to his dismissal, Soykan prepared posters about jailed journalists and hung them on the boards in the Demirören Media Group building. "Freedom to journalists. When journalists are in jail, none of us are free," said the posters showing pictures of journalists who were recently arrested for reporting the death of an intelligence officer in Libya.

The Disk Basın İş Union, which Soykan is a member of, said in a tweet that he was dismissed because of the posters about jailed journalists. It also informed that the lawsuit Soykan filed for unpaid dues continued.

"Despite all the pressures and threats, we will continue to strive for the freedom of our journalist colleagues in prison and journalists' right to organize unions," the union further stated.

Demirören Group previously dismissed 34 unionized journalists at daily Hürriyet, its largest newspaper. After the firings, the Journalists Union of Turkey (TGS) was denied authorization carrying out union activities at Hürriyet.

According to bianet's Media Monitoring Reports, 190 journalists were dismissed or forced to resign last year because of not falling into line with the editorial policies of the outlets they worked for. 

(AS/VK)