Journalists Nazım Daştan and Cihan Bilgin were targeted and killed by Turkey's drones on 19 December while covering news in North and East Syria. Gülistan Dursun, Hayri Tunç, Enes Sezgin, Osman Akın, Can Papila, Etkin News Agency (ETHA) reporter Pınar Gayıp and Mücadele Birliği Newspaper reporter Serpil Ünal were arrested on 22 December for protesting the killing of the journalists. Journalists Seyhan Avşar, Ahmet Doğan Akın and Candan Yıldız were also investigated for their posts on Nazım Daştan and Cihan Bilgin. On 17 January, journalists Necla Demir, Rahime Karvar, Ahmet Güneş, Welat Ekin, Vedat Örüç and Reyhan Hacıoğlu were arrested on charges of "being an illegal organization member". Journalist Eylem Babayiğit was detained on 22 January through the same investigation. The incidents against journalists in the last month have brought the pressures against journalists in Turkey back to the agenda.

 

 

Felat Bozarslan, President of the Southeastern Journalists' Association (GGC), stated that there are serious pressures against journalists in Turkey. Bozarslan emphasised that more than 95 percent of the media in Turkey is under the control of groups controlled by the government and said that free journalism is almost "non-existent" in Turkey. Underlining that targeting and killing journalists in war zones and seeing them as a part of the war does not coincide with ethical and moral values, Bozarslan said, "The system applied to journalists is a violation of the right to life as well as preventing the freedom of information of the public. This situation is unacceptable. Journalists are the people who impartially announce the truth to the society. For this reason, I call for maximum attention to be paid to the safety of journalists."

 

Noting that journalism is a very important profession, Bozarslan said, "Journalism is such a profession that if you close the camera of the journalist, you close the eyes of the world. If you close the microphone of the journalist, you close the ears of the world.Press freedom in Turkey is imprisoned in a blind well. Especially in the last 10 years, these pressures have been continuing at a great pace. They block access to news or websites that do not conform to the views of the government. This situation is a picture of shame for us."

 

CALL FOR SOLIDARITY AGAINST REPRESSION

 

 

Selman Çiçek, Co-chair of Dicle Fırat Journalists Association (DFG), stated that they witness a new violation of rights against journalists and news websites every day. Çiçek stressed that the main reason behind these pressures is to prevent the society from accessing the truth and emphasised that journalists Nazım Daştan and Cihan Bilgin were murdered for these reasons. 

 

"Their aim is to prevent the truth by murdering or arresting us, but they will no succeed" said Çiçek and added, "We will continue to write wherever we are, even if there is only one person left. In the martyrdom of Cihan and Nazım, we created a strong solidarity network, especially with internaitonal press professional organizations and announced to the whole world that this massacre was actually a crime against humanity. A strong solidarity emerged. If we increase this solidarity, these attacks of the state will also come to naught. Again, if we increase our struggle to reveal more news and more truths, we will actually take over the pens they left and carry them into the future."

 

Reminding that many journalists have been arrested and murdered from Apê Musa to the present day, Çiçek said, "We still have more than 40 of our friends in prison, but we did not give up, we did not take a step back, we came back even stronger. From now on, if we are in the struggle to deliver stronger news, stronger truths to the society, we will win."

 

'EVERYONE SHOULD RAISE THEIR VOICE'

 

 

DISK Press Labour Amed (Diyarbakır) Representative Hakkı Boltan stated that the government is acting with the aim of creating a monolingual media. Boltan reminded that journalists were arrested, detained and websites were banned due to this and said, "The government wants to take journalists under its protection and control. However, the Free Press does not work under anyone's patronage. They will continue to write the truth. The arrest of our friends is a crime. What our friends do is not a crime, but those who arrest them are committing a crime."

 

Boltan stated that everyone should speak out against the attacks on journalists.

 

MA / Heval Önkol