26/01/2012: CROATIA – SEEMO SURPRISED AT CROATIA ELECTRONIC MEDIA COUNCIL WARNING TO RTL

Vienna, 26/01/2012

The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute, expresses surprise at the latest warning of Croatia’s seven-member Electronic Media Council, an electronic regulatory body. On 19 January, 2012 the Council ordered RTL TV Croatia (RTL Hrvatska) to translate its programmes from Serbian into Croatian. The decision, based on the electronic media law, states that RTL Hrvatska is legally obliged to “broadcast in Croatian or translate into Croatian”. On the same day, RTL had to change its programming and suspend the only program that was not translated: a Serbian TV series. If the broadcaster does not abide by the decision, it could lose its licence.

Reacting to the warning, RTL replied that it considered the decision discriminatory and announced court action. It was the first time, according to the RTL press release, that the regulatory body had asked a Croatian broadcaster to translate from Serbian into Croatian. Other TV channels also broadcast series and films in Serbian and Bosnian without any translation.

The Council replied that the electronic media law did not take into consideration the connectivity between the Croatian media environment and that from neighbouring countries. Sociolinguist Ivo Zanic declared in the Croatian daily Novi List on 24 January, 2012: “It is legal, but it is stupid …We have three neighbouring languages that are neither foreign nor domestic, they are not quite Croatian, but they are not foreign. I think that the films from Serbia and Montenegro, or generally the films from former Yugoslavia, should be exempted from the category of foreign films, from the linguistic point of view. They can be a third category.”

The language issue is politicised in former Yugoslav countries. Prior to the disintegration of Yugoslavia, in 1991, Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian were considered one language: Croatian-Serbian. After the disintegration, newly independent countries introduced their languages. Although not identical, these languages are so similar that nobody needs translation. During the past decade, films have been shown without subtitles.

SEEMO considers that translating from Serbian into Croatian or vice verse, would be like translating German films in Austria, Austrian films in Germany or Argentina or Cuban productions in Spain.

“I am surprised by the decision of the Electronic Media Council,” said Oliver Vujovic, SEEMO Secretary General. “If RTL is the only broadcaster that has to apply this rule, the decision is discriminatory. If all TV channels transmitting films from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro or Serbia have to translate their programs, the costs would increase considerably. In case of the public broadcaster, HRT, licence fee payers would be paying for absurd translations. The money spent on subtitles could be used to improve cultural, sport or political programs. I urge the Council to reconsider its decision or suggest legal provisions that would avoid these situations in the future. Their credibility has been seriously tarnished by this latest warning.”

Vienna, 02/02/2012

The 2010 overhaul of Hungary’s media laws set a dangerous precedent in Europe. Instead of guaranteeing press freedom in a European Union member country, they seem to guarantee press freedom for the governing party at the expense of the right of the public to free information.

The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), expresses concern at the State appropriation of the Hungarian media landscape.

The Hungarian Media and Telecommunication Authority and its Media Council are controlled by the parliament in which the governing party, Fidesz, has a majority. Although the law prescribes a two-thirds majority of votes in parliament for the council members to be elected, all four members were nominated by Fidesz. The legal procedure was respected but Fidesz controls two thirds of parliament seats in the parliament and can easily choose its candidates. The political independence of the Chairperson of the Media Council is not guaranteed.

The Chairperson appoints, dismisses and remunerates the Director of the Programming Service Support and Property Management Fund. The Fund may be considered ”the public service media company”, because it disposes over the employees, the property and the funding of the public service broadcasters Hungarian Television (MTV), Hungarian Radio, and Danube Television.

From 1 January 2011 all assets and most of the staff of the three public service media organisations (Hungarian Television (MTV), Hungarian Radio, and Danube Television) and the National News Agency (MTI) were allocated to the Media Support and Asset Management Fund (MTVA). The fund is solely supervised by the Media Council which controls all incomes and properties of the broadcasters. The director of the fund and the supervisory board are appointed by the President of the media authority who in turn is appointed by the Prime Minister. This structure creates the possibility of direct governmental control and direct political influence over public service media.

The national news agency, MTI now operates as the single concentrated newsroom for public service television in Hungary. According to observers, MTI operates as a government service. Public media must buy news from MTI, which publishes its news online for free, and offers media service providers to download and republish them. “This leads to an unprecedented market dominance and power of MTI, destroying the business model and viability of other agencies and is contrary to the European rules of fair competition,” concluded the International Partnership Mission on Press Freedom to Hungary (November 14-16, 2011), in which SEEMO and IPI participated.

In other words, the state controls public broadcasters politically and economically, and the Media Council can prescribe the content, as well: In December 2011, liberal talk radio Klubradio had to renew its licence and lost its frequency to a less experienced broadcaster that offered mainly music programmes. The Media Council published the frequency tender and set out that the applicants should offer mainly music, and not more than five minutes of news per hour. Klubradio was known for its talk shows.

The above mentioned decisions generated street protests as well as a hunger strike by MTV journalists.

Further, although the Constitutional Court annulled certain parts of the controversial media law, some questionable regulations remained. This led a group of Hungarian media experts to write:”The Hungarian legal system is not capable to protect the principles of freedom of expression anymore.”

SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic said: “I urge the international organisations to do everything they can in order to underscore that people in Hungary have the same right to information and professional public service as in the rest of Europe, and to guarantee that right.”

SEEMO and the International Press Institute will continue to closely monitor the media situation in Hungary and organise further regular visits to the country.

Vienna, 07/02/2012

A Slovak court last week reportedly blocked publication of a book implicating a private equity group in a high-level graft scandal.

Local media said a Bratislava court on Thursday granted the Penta group’s request for a preliminary injunction against a book containing information from the so-called “Gorilla” file.

The file, which has already circulated online, is said to contain transcripts of conversations intercepted by the Slovak Intelligence Service (SIS) in 2005 and 2006 during a meeting between top officials in the right-wing government of then-Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda and Penta executives who allegedly bribed the officials in exchange for lucrative privatization deals.

Reports indicated that the injunction prohibits Canadian-Slovak investigative journalist Tom Nicholson from publishing or distributing the book for the time being. However, local media said the court had neither confirmed having issued the order nor cited a reason for its ruling.

Nicholson, who reportedly intended to release his book prior to early elections set for 10 March, told Slovak news agency TASR: “I haven’t seen the court ruling and I don’t even know about it. I’ll consult it with my lawyers and we’ll fight for the truth.”

TASR reported that Penta spokesman Martin Danko declined comment on the case, but the agency quoted him as saying: “As long as we’re in a law-based state, every individual or organisation has a right to claim its rights in a legal way.”

IPI Vice Chairman Pavol Múdry, a member of the board of IPI’s Slovak National Committee, said: “This decision reflects a strange understanding of the Slovak Constitution, which clearly states that censorship is forbidden. I hope that after an appeal by Nicholson and [book publisher] Petit Press a higher court will overrule this really strange ruling.”

IPI Press Freedom Manager Anthony Mills said: “This ruling is extremely troubling coming just over a month before the people of Slovakia are scheduled to vote in early elections. IPI and its subsidiary, the South and East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), believe that journalists’ right to report on politicians’ alleged wrongdoing is always of vital public interest, but such information is even more important when citizens are preparing to elect their leaders.”

The scandal caused by the Gorilla file – reportedly named by an unknown SIS analyst – has rocked Slovakia for weeks. On Friday, thousands of angry Slovaks gathered around the country in protest, with demonstrators in Bratislava pelting government buildings with bananas and eggs.

The file first became public in December after it was leaked to the media. Slovakia’s Interior Ministry last month confirmed that it had carried out a surveillance program, but the Ministry declined to confirm the file’s authenticity.

Disclosure of the Gorilla file came on the heels of another wiretapping scandal in November, when reports surfaced indicating that the military counterintelligence service had intercepted the telephone conversations of journalists. Those reports led to the sacking of Defence Minister Lubomir Galko.

The South and East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) supports this statement.

Vienna, 13/02/2012

On 24 February 2012, the Court of Appeal in Komotini, north-eastern Greece, is expected to revise the sentence against the Turkish-minority publications Gundem and Millet which have been ordered to pay 150,000 Euros and 120,000 Euros respectively to a local teacher who sued them.

The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), considers the proposed fines excessive and hopes that the court will revise its decision. Gundem and Millet sell between 1,200 and 1,500 copies each and employ one or two regular staff, in addition to their owners. Located in Western Thrace, they address the Turkish-speaking minority disseminated in small town and villages. The excessive fines could imply their closure and even imprisonment for their journalists.

The case involving Gundem and Millet goes back to January 2011. Both weeklies published a story about a local teacher who had volunteered to come from the capital, Athens, and work in the village of Mega Derio (Buyuk Derbent), and who allegedly asked her primary school pupils to draw a picture of God. Many of the children are Muslims, and since Islam prohibits the depiction of God they refused to comply with the teacher’s request, and complained to their parents. Both newspapers reported on the incident and were subsequently sued by the teacher.

The incident gained nationwide publicity because of the excessive fines. Analysing Greek media laws, the Athens-based daily Eleftherotypia recalled in 2011 that the court had based its ruling on the fact that the story´s impact went beyond the local community since it was taken up by the Greek national media. Eleftherotypia noted that the law stipulates that for a national publication the minimum fine is 29,325 Euros while for a local one it is 5,865 Euros. In other words, the fines of 150,000 Euros and 120,000 Euros go far beyond the stipulated legal amounts.

“I hope that the court in Komotini will revise the previous decision concerning the fines,” said SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic. “Such excessive fines can lead to silencing small media in general and minority media in particular. I think that this trial will is a test of the willingness of the Greek authorities to respect media freedom and minority rights. In fact, since I attribute such importance to this case, my personal advisor Jorgos Papadakis will attend the trial on my behalf on 24 February.”

Vienna, 17/02/2012

The International Press Institute (IPI) today condemned attacks yesterday on the offices of Turkish-language newspaper Zaman in Paris and in the German city of Cologne allegedly carried out by supporters of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Zaman reported that a group of nearly 15 PKK supporters wearing masks entered its Paris office and threatened employees, broke windows, and damaged furniture, televisions and computers.

AFP reported that arsonists torched Zaman’s Cologne headquarters and that police said they arrested two people, aged 17 and 22, in the attack. AFP said that a cafe frequented by Cologne’s Turkish community was also attacked yesterday.

A Cologne police spokesperson told AFP that assailants shouted “typical PKK slogans” in both attacks in the city, and AFP reported that police had not ruled out a link to the PKK, which the European Union, the United States and Turkey consider a terrorist organization.

IPI Press Freedom Manager Anthony Mills said: “We condemn these attacks and we hope that German and French authorities conduct swift, transparent and complete investigations that hold all of the perpetrators accountable. We also reiterate that it is absolutely unacceptable to resort to violence against journalists to express political disagreement with them.”

Yesterday was the 13th anniversary of the arrest of PKK leader and founder Abdullah Öcalan, who remains incarcerated in Turkey.

A Zaman spokesperson said that the Paris attack was the third on its office there in the last six months. The newspaper also accused PKK supporters of carrying out prior attacks on its offices in London, Vienna and Zurich.

The South and East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) supports this statement.

Vienna, 22/02/2012

According to the statistics by Serbia’s Ministry of Interior, attacks on journalists in the country have decreased in the past two years. In 2010, there were seven recorded attacks against journalists. In 2011, three cases of threats to journalists’ safety were recorded. The police had solved all of the above-mentioned cases, Serbia’s Minister of the Interior, Ivica Dacic, said during a recent meeting with a delegation of the Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), headed by Oliver Vujovic, SEEMO Secretary General. The meeting took place at the Ministry’s headquarters in Belgrade, Serbia.

During the meeting, SEEMO, an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), reminded Dacic that the murders of three journalists – Dada Vujasinovic in 1994, Slavko Curuvija in 1999 and Milan Pantic in 2001 – were still unsolved. Neither the perpetrators nor the masterminds have been arrested. Dacic assured the delegation that the police would re-examine these cases and determine whether there have been any new developments that need to be considered. He said that all the material related to these cases had been delivered to the prosecution, but “it does not mean that the material suffices to press charges.” In other words, there may not be enough conclusive evidence.

Currently, five journalists in Serbia, all specialised in reporting on corruption, have been given 24-hour police protection by the Ministry of the Interior. While SEEMO praises the Ministry for providing protection, it expresses concern at the fact that police have been unable to eliminate the sources of threat, which come mostly from mafia-like organisations.

Since all protected journalists continue to work and travel, their protection abroad is of particular concern. Every country has its own laws regarding the allowance of armed policemen on their territory, said Dacic, who explained that Serbian policemen cannot travel abroad with their licensed weapons in order to protect journalists. Some countries maintain that journalists are not in any danger on their territory. Dacic and Vujovic agreed that threats persist even beyond Serbia’s borders.

Considering that international criminal organisations have cross-border networks, threatened journalists are not safe once they leave their country’s borders. Vujovic therefore proposed an international initiative, aimed at improving police cooperation. “We would like to ask international police authorities, starting with the countries in South East Europe, to cooperate better and to respect the analyses made by their colleagues. If journalists need police protection in one country, they need the same form of protection beyond their country’s borders. This initiative may involve legal changes. Some form of cooperation has to be found in order to protect threatened journalists. Living with police protection is not easy and it is even worse when travelling without it in the knowledge that your life is in danger,” Vujovic said.

Vienna, 23/02/2012

The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), condemns the alleged assault against a Studio B TV crew.

On 22 February 2212, reporters from Belgrade-based Studio B were filming in the downtown area of the Serbian capital when a person approached and threatened them, and subsequently hit the camera assistant. The police detained him.

SEEMO recalls that in the cases of previous assaults against journalists, alleged perpetrators were briefly detained, before being released. Any subsequent sentences were inordinately light. SEEMO joins the Association of Serbian Journalists (UNS) in demanding more significant sanctions in such cases.

“I applaud any prompt police action, but I also call on the authorities to guarantee the safety of journalists,” said SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic. “Sentences for this type of offense are often very light, and courts take a long time to deliberate and implement them.”

Vienna, 23/02/2012

The Republic of Macedonia / Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia appears to be sliding towards a tightly controlled media environment. The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), has observed a steady trend towards increasing pressure on journalists. Reporters are subject to pressure from different sources.

On February 16, 2012, a TV crew from the Albanian-language broadcaster Alsat M was the only television crew to be prevented from filming an official meeting between the leader of the Islamic Religious Community in Macedonia, Sulejman Rexhepi, and the Albanian ambassador in Skopje, Arben Cejku.

On February 17, 2012, the city council in the municipality of Karpos decided that journalists could not follow the entire session. Journalists were expelled when deliberations focused on the local budget.

“I see a worrying tendency to curb press freedom through different types of pressure,” said Oliver Vujovic, SEEMO Secretary General. “I call on the authorities – both national and local -to stop exerting pressure on media, and to, instead, show that the country is committed to following international standards.”

Link to Macedonia report: https://seemo.org/files/Media%20Scene%20in%20Macedonia%20edited.pdf

Vienna, 26/02/2012

he International Press Institute (IPI)’s Turkish National Committee today welcomed the release of one of the defendants in the Oda TV trial and called for the release of other journalists the group said had been jailed because of their work.

News website Bianet reported Wednesday that an Istanbul court ordered the release of journalist and author Doğan Yurdakul, 66, for health reasons.

The journalist is said to suffer from hypertension and problems with his heart and his renal system. He also reportedly developed diabetes and a cyst on one of his kidneys in the 11 months since his detention on Mar. 3, 2011.

Yurdakul’s lawyers reportedly told the court that Yurdakul’s continued incarceration could cause a further deterioration in his condition that could possibly lead to his death.

IPI’s Turkish National Committee said in a statement:

“We welcome the release of Doğan Yurdakul in consideration of his health problems….We look forward to the release, pending trial, of those other journalists who are detained and who are being prosecuted for having done their job.”

Yurdakul was formally arrested on March 6 and until his release this week shared a prison cell at the Silivri Prison west of Istanbul with IPI World Press Freedom Hero Nedim Şener and journalist Ahmet Şık.

The three are part of a group of 10 journalists and others charged with various crimes related to the government’s claim that they and nationalist news website Oda TV served as the media wing of the alleged “Ergenekon” plot. They deny accusations that their role was to use their positions to discredit a probe into the alleged plot by secularists and ultra-nationalists to use terrorism to overthrow the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP)-led government.

IPI’s Turkish National Committee in its statement today also urged the government to reform “all articles [of Turkish law] blocking press freedom and the freedom of speech” and it called for full “implementation of the people’s right to obtain information.”

Over 100 journalists are currently imprisoned in Turkey, most in pre-trial detention. Most of those detained are alleged to have violated criminal or anti-terrorism laws banning membership or support in armed criminal organisations. Approximately one third of those imprisoned reportedly were taken into custody in connection with the Ergenekon probe, while the others were detained on charges stemming from alleged ties to banned Kurdish and leftist groups.

IPI and its subsidiary, the South and East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), have criticised Turkey’s treatment of journalists in the past year, including the conditions under which journalists are imprisoned. Suzan Zengin – a human rights activist, journalist and translator who spent two years in pre-trial detention for alleged ties to an illegal Marxist organisation – died last October of an undisclosed ailment, four months after she was released. Critics attributed her death to the government’s alleged failure to provide adequate medical care for chronic health problems during her incarceration.

Vienna, 05/03/2012

Journalists Around the World Call for Nedim Şener’s Release

Journalists around the world today joined the International Press Institute (IPI) in condemning Turkey’s continued imprisonment of investigative journalist and IPI World Press Freedom Hero Nedim Şener, one year after he was detained in connection with an alleged coup plot.

IPI Executive Director Alison Bethel McKenzie said: “The fact that Nedim Şener has been taken away from his family and locked up for a year on allegations that his journalism was a sham designed to protect those whose wrongdoing it exposed is both tragic and absurd. We call on Turkey’s authorities to immediately release Mr. Şener and his co-defendants in the Oda TV case pending trial, and to ensure that their trial is fair and fully in line with international standards of due process.”

Police detained Şener Mar. 3, 2011 in a raid targeting journalists and others connected with nationalist news website Oda TV. Authorities say the website acted as the media wing for the so-called “Ergenekon” plot, in which secularists and ultra-nationalists allegedly planned to use terrorism to overthrow the government of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Prosecutors accuse the defendants of seeking to advance the plot by using media to discredit the government’s probe into it.

Şener and his fellow defendants in the Oda TV case – including investigative journalist Ahmet Şik, writer Yalçin Küçük, Oda TV executive Soner Yalçin and six other journalists –were not informed about the specific charges against them until nearly seven months after they were detained. Şener was originally accused of membership in an armed terrorist organisation, but he was ultimately charged with aiding such an organisation. He faces seven-and-a-half to 15 years in prison if convicted.

According to a recent report by news website Bianet.org, the Oda TV defendants are among 104 journalists imprisoned in Turkey as of Jan. 1, 2012, all for alleged violations of Turkey’s Anti-Terror Law and the Turkish Penal Code.

Dr. Carl-Eugen Eberle, chair of IPI’s Executive Board and the former director of legal affairs for German Broadcaster ZDF, and Ferai Tinç, also a member of IPI’s Executive Board and the chair of IPI’s Turkish National Committee, both expressed strong support for Şener and the other detained journalists.

Fellow IPI Executive Board member and BBC Scotland Director Ken MacQuarrie noted that Şener has now been imprisoned for more than half of the time that has passed since he received his IPI World Press Freedom Hero award at a ceremony in Vienna in September 2010.

“Given the anniversary of Mr. Şener’s incarceration is upon us, it is essential that those of us who can, mark such a dark day by highlighting as widely as possible the appalling nature of his detention,” MacQuarrie said. “With more than 100 other journalists also imprisoned in Turkey and their human rights so completely denied, Mr Şener’s unedifying situation is sadly and shamefully not an isolated case.”

Tinç’s colleague on the board of IPI’s Turkish National Committee, Kadri Gürsel, a columnist for Turkish daily Milliyet, added: “Exactly one year ago, authorities took Nedim Şener into custody claiming that he is member of terrorist organization. This claim was dropped in the indictment and now he is accused of aiding and abetting. The judiciary is having great trouble defending and justifying his imprisonment, which has turned into extra-judicial punishment. To free Turkey from this shame, Nedim Şener has to be set free immediately.”

Şener and his co-defendants have argued that they are being targeted for the content of their writings and that purportedly incriminating files found on Oda TV computer hard drives were placed there by hackers. Turkey’s government maintains, however, that the journalists have not been targeted because of their work.

Oliver Vujovic, secretary general of the South and East Media Organisation (SEEMO), an IPI subsidiary that has also been active in Turkey, said his group was still waiting to see evidence of any wrongdoing.

“If it exists, it should be provided,” Vujovic said. “If it does not, Mr. Şener should be freed. I fully support Mr. Şener and I would like to remind the Turkish authorities that keeping Mr. Şener and dozens of journalists in jail is not the best way to consolidate democracy.”

Şener was an investigative journalist with Milliyet before his arrest and he has written extensively about government corruption in his 20-year career. Recently, he has been active in documenting the “deep state” in Turkey, an alleged group of influential anti-democratic forces within the government purportedly made up of high-level elements within security and intelligence services, the military and the judiciary.

He also has actively criticised the state’s failure to prevent the 2007 murder of his friend and fellow IPI World Press Freedom Hero, Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, and he consistently points out the contradiction in the government’s suggestion that he worked on behalf of the shadowy group he blames for Dink’s death. In a letter to IPI last October from the Silivri Prison, Şener wrote that those investigating the Ergenekon plot were “the same police officers who I wrote were involved in the Dink murder with their neglect”.

He added: “Whatever the Turkish state alleges, I’d like to assure you that I didn’t conduct any activity outside the domain of journalism…At the end of the day, the indictment and its appendix show that the prosecution’s only charge against me is journalism. Therefore, it is journalism that will be tried in court.”

Many of Şener’s fellow IPI World Press Freedom Heroes expressed support for their colleague.

Palestinian journalist Daoud Kuttab, who was honoured in 2000 and who has fought for media freedom in the Palestinian Territories, noted: “Arrest and restrictions on journalists for their work is a violation of the 19th article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”

South African editor and publisher Raymond Louw – a 2011 honouree who battled apartheid and censorship in his country – labelled Şener’s detention “unjustified”. Louw urged Turkish authorities “to heed the denials of Mr. Şener and his colleagues of the allegations that have been brought against them and release them.”

Journalist Doan Viet Hoat, a 2000 honouree and one of Vietnam’s most prominent dissidents who was held as a prisoner of conscience for almost 20 years, commented: “I strongly condemn the Turkish government in detaining Mr. Şener and I demand his release immediately and unconditionally.”

Liberian journalist Kenneth Best, who was honoured in 2000 for his work toward media freedom in West Africa, said: “Oppressive governments all over the world would use every opportunity to persecute those, especially journalists, who have the courage to speak and write about injustice and oppression taking place around them…Many are those daring journalistic souls who dare to re-echo the thoughts and feelings of dissidents. Journalists usually become victims of the ‘blame the messenger’ syndrome. That seems to be the fate of our esteemed colleague in Turkey, Nedim Şener.”

Şener’s wife, Vecide, described to IPI the toll her husband’s plight has taken on their family.

“What we have passed through has been a very sad and hurting process,” she said. “I received from the prosecutor a formal letter saying that ‘your husband is detained, he is a member of a terrorist organisation’. But when we finally saw the indictment, it said ‘aiding a terrorist organization’. Now my husband has three identity cards at the prison, two of them are international identity cards for journalists and one identity card says ‘terrorist organization member’ on it. We believed in law, but nothing has changed during this whole year. It is now clear that my husband is a real journalist.”

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Nedim Şener remains incarcerated in the Silivri Prison in Turkey. Tomorrow will mark one year since his detention. Please add your name to this petition calling for his release.