A crime against freedom of the press
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mart 05, 2009 00:00
It is no secret to readers of the Daily News that this newspaper differs sharply with the prime minister on some issues. Readers also know that we make every effort to prevent our differences of opinion -- chiefly over press freedom -- from coloring the news we present each day. We treat the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, with the same standards and scrutiny as any other party.
But just as we cannot hide our views at a time of active efforts at censorship under the color of tax law, we also cannot hide our disillusionment when a journalist is physically and verbally assaulted by an AKP cadre. This sense of disillusionment is all the more acute when the reporter attacked is one of our own.
We realize that we do not publish a newspaper in London or Berlin or Stockholm where a party stalwart manhandling a reporter would provoke national reaction and would be followed by swift action by the government. We will not, as we might were we in Madrid or Paris or Oslo, file formal charges. Sadly, such risks are all in a day’s work.
But we do want to place on the record our condemnation of what took place Tuesday, and which we reported with great restraint in yesterday’s newspaper. A reporter assigned to our Metronome section, Gül Tüysüz, was covering the heavily-attended opening of a metrobus line connecting the Asian and European sides of Istanbul. There to cut the ribbon was Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbaş. The reporter, Gül Tüysüz, was taking pictures. When her camera’s gaze turned on AKP supporters trampling the landscaping, an AKP stalwart pushed and shoved her repeatedly, verbally assaulting her as well as, "dirty press." Finally, he pushed Tüysüz into a wire fence, challenging her that "you are out to get him." It was abundantly clear who he meant. The reporter called for the police to intervene. They overheard but did not respond. Tüysüz had the presence of mind to demand her assailant’s name but that effort proved fruitless. Finally, another AKP volunteer, apparently the assailant’s companion, intervened.
We appreciate and acknowledge that it was another AKP activist who came to our reporter’s rescue. But we are sorely disappointed that the police did not do their job. This is not the first time in recent months that a Daily News reporter has suffered assault. We have had staffers gassed, battered with police batons and even briefly locked up in the course of carrying out their duties legally, democratically and professionally. It takes guts to be a reporter in Turkey.
We take no small pride in the courage of our journalists. But this should not be a required virtue. What happened Tuesday was a crime against our reporter and a crime against freedom of the press. The government, whose job it is to protect, won’t say so. We just did.
We realize that we do not publish a newspaper in London or Berlin or Stockholm where a party stalwart manhandling a reporter would provoke national reaction and would be followed by swift action by the government. We will not, as we might were we in Madrid or Paris or Oslo, file formal charges. Sadly, such risks are all in a day’s work.
But we do want to place on the record our condemnation of what took place Tuesday, and which we reported with great restraint in yesterday’s newspaper. A reporter assigned to our Metronome section, Gül Tüysüz, was covering the heavily-attended opening of a metrobus line connecting the Asian and European sides of Istanbul. There to cut the ribbon was Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbaş. The reporter, Gül Tüysüz, was taking pictures. When her camera’s gaze turned on AKP supporters trampling the landscaping, an AKP stalwart pushed and shoved her repeatedly, verbally assaulting her as well as, "dirty press." Finally, he pushed Tüysüz into a wire fence, challenging her that "you are out to get him." It was abundantly clear who he meant. The reporter called for the police to intervene. They overheard but did not respond. Tüysüz had the presence of mind to demand her assailant’s name but that effort proved fruitless. Finally, another AKP volunteer, apparently the assailant’s companion, intervened.
We appreciate and acknowledge that it was another AKP activist who came to our reporter’s rescue. But we are sorely disappointed that the police did not do their job. This is not the first time in recent months that a Daily News reporter has suffered assault. We have had staffers gassed, battered with police batons and even briefly locked up in the course of carrying out their duties legally, democratically and professionally. It takes guts to be a reporter in Turkey.
We take no small pride in the courage of our journalists. But this should not be a required virtue. What happened Tuesday was a crime against our reporter and a crime against freedom of the press. The government, whose job it is to protect, won’t say so. We just did.