IPI director calls for solidarity in media
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Hürriyet Daily News
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Kasım 27, 2008 00:00
ISTANBUL - International Press Institute, or IPI, Director David Dadge took part in a seminar with members of the Turkish media on press freedom in Turkey and the European Union before returning to IPI headquarters in Vienna, Austria.
Dadge was in Istanbul for four days to meet with members of the IPI Turkish National Committee to discuss the press freedom situation in Turkey. During his stay, Dadge gave several interviews to Turkish media outlets.
In a speech delivered at the seminar, Dadge called for solidarity among Turkish media in the face of growing government pressure. In September, the IPI called on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to stop pressuring the Doğan Media Group in response to media coverage of the Deniz Feneri corruption scandal. Dadge also discussed IPI's recently launched "Justice Denied" campaign, which focuses on impunity and the imprisonment of journalists by highlighting the cases of 10 journalists from different regions of the world who have been silenced by imprisonment or physical attack, including murder.
One of the 10 cases tells the story of Turkish journalist Ahmet Taner Kışlalı, who was killed on Oct. 21, 1999 by an explosive device that had been placed on his car.
Turkey's media environment has been marred by restrictive, aggressively enforced laws. In January 2008, in an open letter to Erdoğan, the IPI expressed its disappointment at the Turkish government's continued failure to initiate reform of criminal defamation articles laid down in the Turkish penal code. In particular it urged the repeal of Article 301, which criminalises insults to "Turkishness" and carries a sentence of up to three years’ imprisonment.
In a speech delivered at the seminar, Dadge called for solidarity among Turkish media in the face of growing government pressure. In September, the IPI called on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to stop pressuring the Doğan Media Group in response to media coverage of the Deniz Feneri corruption scandal. Dadge also discussed IPI's recently launched "Justice Denied" campaign, which focuses on impunity and the imprisonment of journalists by highlighting the cases of 10 journalists from different regions of the world who have been silenced by imprisonment or physical attack, including murder.
One of the 10 cases tells the story of Turkish journalist Ahmet Taner Kışlalı, who was killed on Oct. 21, 1999 by an explosive device that had been placed on his car.
Turkey's media environment has been marred by restrictive, aggressively enforced laws. In January 2008, in an open letter to Erdoğan, the IPI expressed its disappointment at the Turkish government's continued failure to initiate reform of criminal defamation articles laid down in the Turkish penal code. In particular it urged the repeal of Article 301, which criminalises insults to "Turkishness" and carries a sentence of up to three years’ imprisonment.