Kurdish journalist Safiye Alagaş in new Freedom House campaign for political prisoners

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

The US-based think tank Freedom House has launched a campaign in support of people from around the world who are being targeted because of advocating democracy and freedom.

The campaign entitled "Free Them All" aims to document and study the cases of the thousands of activists who have been imprisoned or otherwise deprived of their liberty, and to advocate for their immediate release, said the think tank.

Safiye Alagaş, a journalist who has been in pre-trial detention for over six months, is one of the 10 "emblematic cases of political prisoners" cited by Freedom House.

Alaş was among the 16 Kurdish journalists who were detained during house raids on June 16 and have been kept behind bars without indictment since then. She is the managing editor of JINNEWS, a news agency focused on women and LGBTI+ issues in the country's predominantly Kurdish-populated regions.

A five-day hunger strike

"She shares her cramped cell with 14 other journalists — and a 24-hour surveillance camera. She is allowed no books or newspapers of her own choice," Freedom House wrote about Alagaş.

"There isn't enough soap or shampoo for all 15 of them, creating unsanitary conditions. So they protested: a five-day hunger strike that resulted in disciplinary proceedings.

"Previously, Alagaş and her cellmates were disciplined for singing and dancing in their cell. They got one month with no communications for the offense.

"Alagaş sits in prison with her fellow journalists, accused of making 'terrorist propaganda' following a police raid at her home and the newsroom she manages.

"The police confiscated her cameras, phone, computer hard drives, and other equipment because of an article her news agency, JIN News, published about the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is outlawed as a terrorist group in Turkey. The article, it is alleged, took a pro-PKK angle." (HA/VK)