Turkish journalists to march for release of 68 arrested colleagues

Friday, March 11, 2011

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Journalists demanding the release of 68 arrested colleagues and better protection for press freedom in Turkey are planning a mass demonstration Sunday in central Istanbul.

“The arrested journalists, 10 of which are women, and whose total number has reached 68, should be given their freedom immediately,” the Freedom to Journalists Platform, which is organizing the protest, said in a statement.

The group, which consists of 92 different national and local press organizations, also demanded that changes be made in Turkish law to ensure freedom of the press, saying that both journalists’ freedom of expression and the public’s freedom to receive news are currently being hampered.

Participants in Sunday’s demonstration will march at noon from Galatasaray Square to Taksim Square in Istanbul’s central Beyoğlu district to demand the imprisoned journalists be freed as soon as possible and to ask for changes in the Turkish penal code, the Criminal Procedure Code, or CMK, the anti-terror law and laws hindering the freedom of communication.

Reporters Nedim Şener and Ahmet Şık were arrested earlier this month following raids on their homes and those of other journalists as part of the ongoing probe into the alleged Ergenekon gang, which is accused of plotting to topple the government.

According to the platform’s statement, the journalists are asking for changes to every article in the Turkish Penal Code that limits press freedom. Their top targets are articles used to jail members of the press for “violating privacy,” “attempting to affect fair judgment” and “possessing documents or information through the act of journalism.”

The anti-terror law, particularly its provisions dealing with “making propaganda for a terror organization” and “making targets of people fighting terror” should absolutely be changed, along with legal articles denying access to websites and enabling wiretappings, the statement said.

The committee organizing the Freedom to Journalists Platform said it would ask for appointments with the president, the prime minister and other state officials responsible for the press concerning its demands to alter the laws.

Amid the ongoing debate about press freedom, the official website of the largest journalists’ association in Turkey was meanwhile attacked by hackers. In a written statement, the Turkish Journalists Association, or TGC, called the attack “a new example of the intolerance [in the country] to the freedom of expression and the freedom of the press.”