Turkey: Journalism is Not a Crime!

Source: Bianet.org

A group of journalists who have came together against the ever-increasing pressure on the press in Turkey has started a new initiative named “I’am a Journalist”.

The initiative established to protect freedom of press and become the voice of journalists who have been arrested, threatened, silenced for being a journalist, writing thruths and playing a part in the professional solidarity, and to protect the peoples’ right to information has started its first activity, as a banner campaign published in newspapers and web sites.

For five days, the banner prepared with the slogans “Did you know? Journalism is not a crime” in Turkish language and “Hûn Vê Dizanin? Rojnamegerî Ne Sûc e” in Kurdish language will be published in the newspapers, tv channels and web sites, which, despite all the difficulties, have  continued journalism activities.. Among the first supporters alongside bianet, there are newspapers like Cumhuriyet daily, Evrensel daily, Agos weekly, Azadiya Welat daily, BirGün daily, Halkın Nabzı, Özgür Gündem daily, Yurt and the websites T24, P24, Haberdar, Diken, Sendika Org, Jiyan, ABC, Journo, Dağ Medya, Solfasol, İlke Haber and İMC.

Pointing out that the pressure targetting media and journalists has even influenced foreign journalists and that journalism was being tried to become a crime, the initiative has underlined that solidarity needs to be grow stronger in such situations.

The statement made by the initiative says “Its imposibble to talk about democracy in a community whose right to information has been restricted. We will pull out all the stops to be voice of the people who have been smeared, silenced and locked in the jail for performing their jobs or supporting freedom of press. We are journalists and we shout out: Journalism is not a crime!”