The Association of European Journalists, with the Committee to Protect Journalists and International Press Institute, published a public PRESS FREEDOM ALERT on the Europe-wide monitoring system – the platform for the safety of Journalists, calling on Turkiye to release ALL the journalists detained in the public protests against the arrest and detention of Istanbul Mayor Imamoglu
https://fom.coe.int/en/alerte/detail/107642262;globalSearch=false .
Turkiye recently faced growing criticism for harshly suppressing media freedom and the rights to protest of Turkish people.
The AEJ and the other 14 journalists’ and press freedom organisations that cooperate with the press freedom Platform of the Council of Europe announced that Turkiye was the subject of 280 press freedom alerts during the past ten year.
Each alert was a protest against arrests, detentions and attacks against journalists.
That means that Turkiye was the subject of more press freedom alerts than any other European country over the past decade!
Turkiye, with Azerbaijan, is the only European countries that refuses to cooperate with the Council of Europe’s official press freedom alerts system – the PLATFORM FOR THE SAFETY OF JOURNALISTS.
The system was established with the approval of all the member states of the Council of Europe in April 2015, exactly ten years ago.
As World Press freedom Day on 3 May approaches, the AEJ and other media freedom organisations call on the government of Turkiye to respect its legal obligations to respect press freedom and release all journalists falsely arrested and detained.
The Ankara government must free Osman Kavala and others unlawfully imprisoned, cease its arbitrary violence and intimidation of journalists, and re-join the community of democratic countries in Europe!
