In Turkey, journalists who disrupt the mafia’s vested interests and shed light on murky relationships are being targeted and threatened. The latest example is Ismail Arı, a young, award-winning investigative journalist and reporter for BirGün newspaper. Arı is receiving threats via messages sent to his mobile phone from a number registered in the United Kingdom.
In May, Arı had announced that he was threatened due to his report on “bribery in the judiciary,” which was linked to a gang known as the Şahinler group. He had called on officials from the Turkish General Directorate of Security and the Ministry of Interior to take necessary action.
The threatening messages sent to his phone also targeted Arı’s over-80-year-old grandmother and his aunt, with statements like: “We will wipe out your entire family.” In the latest round of threats, Arı is told that the gang’s men are following him in Ankara and that his sister and wife will be raped.
In a statement following the threats, Arı said; “I went to the police and filed a complaint, but no one has called or followed up. Meanwhile, the gang continues to issue threats. They’ve put men on my tail. I am sharing the messages exactly as I received them. If anything happens to me, the people responsible will be those in the police and the Ministry of Interior who are failing to act against this gang.”
Kıvanç El, President of the Progressive Journalists Association (ÇGD), voiced support for Arı, stating; “Our colleague Arı is a successful journalist. We do not want him to share the same fate as our colleagues—Daphne Caruana in Malta, Peter R. de Vries in the Netherlands, Javier Valdez in Mexico, and Anna Politkovskaya in Russia. We call on the authorities to immediately take the necessary precautions, and we urge all international journalism organizations to stand in solidarity with Arı.”
L. Dogan Tilic – AEJ representative in Turkey
AEJ supports the protest to Turkey over the threats to Ismail Ari, and our participation through the Platform Alert is clearly stated on the AEJ website as well as in the CPJ alert – LINK.
