A statement condemning the mass arrest of Kurdish journalists on 8 June and calling for their immediate release has been signed by 837 journalists, and representatives of 62 media outlets and journalists’ organisations in Turkey.
Among the journalists’ organisations are the Diyarbakır branch of Turkey’s largest union of journalists, the Union of Journalists in Turkey (TGS), the Diyarbakır branch of the Media Communication and Postal Employees Union (Haber-Sen), and the Union of Press and Print Workers in Turkey (Basın-İş).
The statement, released in Turkish, Kurdish, Armenian and English, read:
“We call upon everyone, and specifically the opposition who have been promising a system of law, justice, equality, freedom and democracy in transition to the Turkey of the future, to stand in solidarity with our detained colleagues and stand up against the violence of the political administration.
“We call upon members of the judiciary not to act as instruments of the lawlessness and tyranny of the administration, to take decisions within the context of universal legal parametres regarding the freedom of the press and of expression, and to immediately release the journalists in custody.
“We call upon international press organisations, journalists, human rights organisations and human rights defenders to stand in solidarity with us for the betterment of press freedom in Turkey, and urge them to take action in the face of pressures imposed on journalists.”
The statement ended saying:
“We are witnesses for our colleagues. Although such policies of repression and intimidation are well known by the ranks of the tradition of the free press, who have always been engaged in a struggle for the right of the public to information, we will never allow ourselves to become acclimatised to such operations and policies.”
