23/07/2015: Head of IPI’s Turkish National Committee fired over tweet critical of Turkish president

Vienna, 23/07/2015

The International Press Institute (IPI) and its affiliate South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) said today that they were deeply troubled by the firing of IPI Turkish National Committee President Kadri Gürsel from his position as a columnist at Milliyet newspaper over a tweet critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Gürsel was informed yesterday by the paper’s human resources department that Milliyet was unilaterally terminating its contract with him. “We parted ways with Mr. Ahmet Kadri Gürsel for his stance which damaged our co-working environment,” Milliyet said in a statement released earlier today confirming the move. The statement also accused Gürsel of violating journalistic ethics and displaying a “subversive attitude”, according to reports.

The tweet in question suggested that Turkish policy toward the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) was partly responsible for Monday’s bombing of a cultural centre in Suruç, Turkey that left over 30 people dead. The alleged bomber is reported to have ties to ISIS.

“It is shameful that foreign leaders call and console the person who is the number one cause of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terror in Turkey,” Gürsel tweeted on Tuesday, according to a translation published in the Turkish English-language press. The “person” is understood to refer to Erdoğan.

“I am not surprised,” Gürsel said today of his firing.

IPI’s recent special report on press freedom in Turkey, “Democracy at Risk”, highlighted with particular concern the willingness of government officials, especially Erdoğan, to directly pressure media outlets, as is suspected to have occurred in Gürsel’s case. “Recent years have seen not only raids on media houses, but telephone calls to media owners and editors directing how issues are to be covered or calling for the firing of critical voices,” the report noted.

IPI Executive Director Barbara Trionfi said IPI was dismayed by the treatment of Gürsel, who was also subject to extensive abuse on social media.

“It is extremely disheartening to see one of Turkey’s most important voices for the basic human right of freedom of expression – not to mention one of its most well-respected journalists – dismissed from his job for expressing his opinion about a matter of utmost public interest.
Kadri Gürsel’s firing is an indication of how narrow the space for independent journalism in Turkey has become and is yet another sign that the Turkish government appears unable to view criticism as anything but a threat that must be immediately silenced. This is a sad day for pluralism and the free flow of information in Turkey.”

IPI Executive Board Member Ferai Tinç, a former columnist for Turkey’s Hürriyet newspaper, added: “Press freedom violations are no longer an exception in Turkey. During the last five years, most of the outspoken and reliable journalists from mainstream media have lost their jobs because they annoyed the AKP government with what they wrote in their articles, what they said in TV programmes or what they tweeted. This occurs after a phone call from the president’s office to the media owners. The firing of Kadri Gürsel is just the latest example, but his dismissal is a serious loss for the struggle for democracy in Turkey.”

SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic expressed “shock” over the incident. “Kadri is one of the most highly respected columnists and media professionals in Turkey and is well-known for his critical views. Turkey needs journalists like Kadri. He was fired for criticising President Erdoğan on Twitter, which amounts to a clear attack on freedom of expression.”

Gürsel had worked for Milliyet since 1998 and, as the president of IPI’s Turkish National Committee, has been a leading advocate for press freedom in a country where the list of threats to independent journalism has become long. IPI’s Director of Advocacy and Communications Steven M. Ellis earlier this year cited economic pressure on media outlets, a toxic political climate, manipulation of the legal framework, pressure on speech online and ongoing impunity for attacks on journalists as factors that had led to a “pervasive climate of self-censorship” and to
“serious deficiencies in [Turkey’s] democracy.”

IPI most recently visited Turkey on an official press-freedom mission in October 2014. On that occasion, President Erdoğan told a joint IPI-Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) delegation that he supported the “freedom and liberty of the media to criticise on the condition that it’s accurate, to the point and responsible” but denounced “insults” levelled against him by hostile media outlets and what he said was manipulated news coverage.

Vienna, 23/07/2015

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) is deeply troubled by the dismissal of IPI Turkish National Committee President Kadri Gürsel from his position as a columnist at Milliyet newspaper, after Gürsel authored a critical tweet about President Recep Erdoğan.

Gürsel was informed of the unilateral termination of his contract with Milliyet by the paper’s human resources department on 22 July.

SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic expressed shock over the incident.

“Kadri is one of the most highly-respected columnists and media professionals in Turkey, and is well-known for his critical views. Turkey needs journalists like Kadri. He was fired for criticising President Erdoğan on Twitter, which amounts to a clear attack on freedom of expression”.

SEEMO’s press freedom work is supported by the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) project, as part of a grant by the European Commission.

Vienna, 15/07/2015

Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Vladimir Pesevski today physically attacked Sase Ivanovski – Politiko, editor-in-chief and owner of the online portal Maktel. The incident happened after the journalist tried to get a statement from Pesevski. Aftet the attack, Pesevski apologized for his reaction toward the journalist. However his party, the ruling party VMRO-DPMNE, issued a statement describing Ivanovski as provocative. According to a party-statement ““next time, SDSM (SDSM is the main opposition party, its force such as Politiko, and all those similar to him should be aware of the consequences resulting from any threat to privacy, freedom and rights that every person and entity has regardless of the position being held”.

“It is not acceptable what happened. I am asking: how a politician in power can physical attack a journalists? I hope this will never happen again and I am asking for an urgent investigation of the case. The state prosecutor must react in this case”, Oliver Vujovic, SEEMO Secretary General said.

SEEMO’s press freedom work is supported by the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) project, as part of a grant by the European Commission.

Vienna, 21/07/2015

The Slovenian Parliament earlier this month voted 86-1 to introduce a public-interest defence for persons accused of publishing classified information.

The move followed the highly publicised trial of Deloinvestigative journalist Anuška Delić on charges of publishing classified state intelligence after she revealed links between the Slovenian neo-Nazi group Blood and Honour and members of the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) in a 2011 exposé.

Prosecutors dropped charges against Delić in April 2015 in the wake of widespread criticism from international press freedom groups, including the International Press Institute (IPI) and its affiliate for South East Europe, SEEMO. During a Nov. 2014 visit to Ljubljana, IPI and SEEMO had urged Slovenian officials, including Justice Minister Goran Klemenčič as well as key MPs, to reform the country’s official secrets legislation by providing a public interest defence and later joined a campaign on the issue launched by the Slovene Association of Journalists.

According to the journalist association DNS, the 9 July vote modifies Art. 260 of the Slovenian Criminal Code to exempt from prosecution the collection, possession and publication of classified information if, according to the circumstances of the case, the public interest in revealing the information overrides the interest in keeping it secret. The exemption will not apply in cases in which such publication endangers the life of one or more persons. To the disappointment of some observers, the amendment also increases the maximum jail term for those found to have broken the law, from three to eight years.

“The introduction of a public interest defence in Art. 260 is a welcome step, particularly given the way that this law was abused in the prosecution of Anuška Delić,” IPI Director of Press Freedom Programmes Scott Griffen said. “We are pleased that the Slovenian Parliament appears to have resoundingly accepted the principle that journalists should not be punished for revealing matters of clear public interest.”

A previous public-interest exemption for disclosures of classified information was removed in 2008 under the government of former SDS Prime Minister Janez Janša, who is currently serving a two-year prison term for corruption.

Friday’s changes to the Penal Code also included a significant amendment to Slovenian defamation legislation that had been sought by IPI, SEEMO and DNS. Art. 168 will be amended to specify that cases of criminal defamation or insult committed against public officials are to be brought by private action rather than by a public prosecutor, as had been the case until now.

In an April 2015 letter addressed to Justice Minister Klemenčič, the three organisations had argued that the change would help deter abuse of Slovenia’s criminal defamation law by ensuring that public officials would “need to become personally engaged in the proceedings and shoulder all of the costs if their private action failed”.

Griffen characterised the amendment to Art. 168 as a first step toward the full repeal of criminal defamation and insult in Slovenia.

“This is another welcome change, but it is at best an intermediate step,” he said. “In order to bring the country’s defamation law fully in line with international human rights standards and treaties, the Slovenian government needs to remove all prison sentences for defamation and insult and, ultimately, repeal criminal defamation.”

SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic added: “SEEMO welcomes the adoption of the amended Penal Code, in the areas of both classified information and defamation. I regret, however, that Parliament did not take the opportunity for additional changes toward the decriminalisation of defamation and the abolition of prison sentences. I hope that this will be done in the near future.”

Slovenia is only one of two former Yugoslav countries to retain criminal defamation – Croatia is the other – and is the only one in which defamation and insult are punishable by imprisonment, according to IPI’s extensive research on the situation of criminal defamation law in Europe.

SEEMO’s press freedom work is supported by the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) project, as part of a grant by the European Commission.

Wienna, 27/12/2014

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) was displeased to learn about yesterday’s decision by a court in the city of Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The verdict contains a temporary measure which prohibits journalists from sharing information about the alleged criminal acts of three Ministry of Interior affairs employees.

Three police officers sued the Federal public broadcaster FTV for defamation, claiming that the article written about them in Mreza was untrue.

“By instigating such a decision, Bosnian authorities have shown deep disrespect and disregard for the journalistic profession. SEEMO members were unpleasantly surprised to learn about these developments, and we insist that this court verdict is converted immediately.” SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic stated.

Vienna, 16/12/2014

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) was alarmed to learn about developments in Greece on December 14th.

An event was held in the Journalists Union in Athens with the presence of government officials. Outside of the building, a group of unemployed journalists were protesting, before being violently removed by Greek riot police members. One of the journalists present was allegedly hit by riot police members.

“Freedom of speech and gathering cannot be dismissed by police or any other state institution” SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic said.

Vienna, 15/12/2014

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) was appalled to learn about yesterday’s developments in Istanbul and detention of 31 people, among them high ranking media employees, TV serials producers and directors, and managers of the daily Zaman and the Samanyolu Media Group. They were taken into custody under charges of establishing, heading or being a member of a terrorist organization, as well as fraud and slander.

The operation occurred shortly after last month’s law passed by the Parliament, which enables prosecutors to use the argument of reasonable suspicion when detaining people. The suspects and lawyers have so far been restricted from seeing the content of the investigation file, due to a confidentiality order.

Numerous of people have gathered in front of the Çağlayan Courthouse, showing their support for those taken into custody, and many human rights organisations and initiatives have already expressed their concern.

Vienna, 15/12/2014

The International Press Institute (IPI), its Turkish National Committee, and the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), today condemned Turkish authorities’ raids on media outlets with links to a former ally-turned-critic of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and called for the release of journalists detained in the operation.

Police targeted the Zaman newspaper and the Samanyolu Media Group, both of which are tied to U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, on accusations “of founding and directing an armed terror organization, being a member of this organization, and engaging in forgery and slander,” the Istanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office reportedly said.

The move came one day after Erdogan announced a new campaign against Gulen and his supporters, and almost one year to the day after the eruption of a corruption scandal that threatened to bring down his Justice and Development Party (AKP) government. Erdogan claims that Gulen supporters fabricated elements of the corruption allegations in an effort to oust him from power.

Some two dozen people were reportedly detained in yesterday’s operation, but it was unclear how many were still in custody, as local sources indicated some had been released.

IPI’s Turkish National Committee said in a statement yesterday that the raids were “yet another sign that striking a blow against the freedom of the press in order to solve a political problem has become a tradition in Turkey”, adding: “Just as critical journalists have been arrested in the past by alleging that they were ‘coup plotters’ or ‘terrorists’, now our colleagues are being targeted by calling them the members of ‘the parallel structure’ within the state.”

IPI Senior Press Freedom Adviser Steven M. Ellis noted that the raids were the latest in a string of incidents in which Turkey’s leaders sought to suppress media coverage of corruption allegations that have dogged the AKP.

“Last month an AKP lawmaker secured a ban on media coverage of a parliamentary inquiry into the corruption accusations,” he said. “Journalists who have reported on claims of corruption have faced criminal defamation charges or online harassment. In March, the government banned Twitter and YouTube in what was widely perceived as an effort to keep voters in municipal elections from hearing about corruption allegations.

“Pulling a veil of secrecy over accusations of corruption and targeting those who raise them, rather than seeking to rebut the allegations themselves, will serve only to undermine public confidence in the rule of law and democracy in Turkey.”

Ellis agreed that yesterday’s developments appeared to be part of a trend by Turkey’s government in recent years to use terrorism accusations to bring its critics to heel.

“In early 2012, we saw some 100 journalists behind bars in Turkey, most taken into custody on charges – and in raids – similar to those described yesterday,” he said. “That number had dropped to approximately 19 by early October of this year, but yesterday’s detentions could very well double it and make Turkey once again a contender for the title of ‘world’s leading jailer of journalists’. Worse, many of those previously released could face a return to prison depending on the outcome of ongoing trials or appeals.”

Yesterday’s developments come amid an extremely worrying media freedom situation in the country, one that led IPI SEEMO delegates on a joint press freedom mission to Turkey with the Committee to Protect Journalists from 30 September to 2 October to warn that an erosion of media freedoms threatened the country’s democracy.

In addition to a number of orders banning media from covering certain topics, journalists and media owners in Turkey face “government pressure – both direct and indirect…, a weakened system of checks and balances and a polarised political climate in which toxic, anti-media rhetoric is allowed to flourish”, IPI delegates found.

IPI’s affiliate, the South East Europe Media Organisation, similarly expressed alarm about yesterday’s developments.

“The latest pressure on journalists and media staff from the newspaper Zaman and Samanyolu TV, as well as the detention of journalists, shows an animosity by authorities toward the media,” SEEMO Secretary-General Oliver Vujovic said. “It all looks like political pressure on media.”

IPI’s Turkish National Committee said yesterday that the most recent raids showed a need for Turkey to uphold “the fundamental principles of the rule of law, and the freedom of the press”, adding: “While revealing the problematic structure of Turkey’s democracy, this process also proves that democratisation is not possible as long as violations of freedom of the press continue.”

Vienna, 09/12/2014

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) was alarmed to learn that Zekirja Shabani, editor of daily Tribuna and chairman of Kosovo Association of Journalists (KAJ) was physically attacked.

Shabani recently announced that he will be suing the newspaper Tribuna for breach of contract and salary debt, after which the owner of the paper, attacked him physically at the workplace and insulted him. The attack was reported to the police.

“SEEMO and its members stand behind Shabani and express their full support for media workers in Kosovo” Secretary General Oliver Vujovic stated. “It is of utter importance that the authorities in Kosovo react immediately to this attack, and punish the perpetrator accordingly. They must set the correct example so that cases like this one do not occur again. Media freedom is fragile, and especially so in Kosovo. Lately there has been a series of threats and attacks that are telling us journalists aren’t safe” he added.

Vienna, 08/12/2014

he South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) expressed its concerned over the latest occurrences in Croatia.

Dujomir Marasovic, the MP of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) stated during a Parliament session that once the new government is elected, which he believes he will be a part of, the first thing on the agenda will be to „wipe clean“ the current staff and authorities of Croatian Radio and TV – HRT, the national public broadcaster.

He was immediately criticised by members of other parties and the Parliament President for his outburst of animosity. The Croatian Journalists’ Association called it a classical and primitive political threat, and stated that they will work hard to inform both the Croatian and European public about the hate speech terminology used amongst the country’s politicians.

„SEEMO supports the Croatian Journalists Association, the public broadcaster HRT and all those who could be affected by such foul language and dangerous discourse, coming from a political representative. “ SEEMO Secreaty General Oliver Vujovic has said.