Janne Virkkunen (2012)
Editor-in-Chief, Helsingin Sanomat, Finland;
IPI Board Member
Turkey is continuing its EU accession negotiations, yet at the same time the Turkish government continues to seriously violate press freedom in Turkey. The EU cannot accept this behaviour from Turkey. Imprisoned journalists have to be released or tried before court. Imprisoned journalists have a right to a fair trial. If Turkey wants to become a member of the European Union, the Turkish government has to respect press freedom and the EU has to be firm in regard to this issue.
The Hungarian government has only softened the new media legislation a bit. In the European Union, we cannot accept that a member country tries to prevent the media from doing its job. In its new form, the Hungarian media law still threatens press freedom, which means that we have to continue to press Hungarians to improve the situation in the country. For us it is impossible to compromise on this kind of issue.
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