Vienna, 03/06/2016
The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) called on the international community to combat continuous media freedom violations in Turkey, after a troubling number of recent arrests and attacks.
On 1 June, ANF journalist Ali Baris Kurt was taken into custody in Corum, a province in the Black Sea Region of Turkey. Kurt was called to the local police headquarters in order to give his testimony, allegedly because of his activity and posts on social media.
In addition to poor working conditions; and torture committed by state forces against journalists, the Turkish Association of Free Journalists (OGC) issued its a report in May that showed a significant increase in the number of incidents, human rights violations and oppression of media workers. A total of 18 journalists were detained during this month (May 2016) only, and six were jailed. Four journalists were attacked, two were threatened and a number of others faced dismissals, arbitrary obstructions, suspensions and raids.
SEEMO supports media workers in Turkey and once again calls on authorities to respect human rights, freedom of speech and expression.
SEEMO is a network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in South, East and Central Europe and its 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.