Recently, Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontiers) published a special report and launched an awareness campaign (television/newspaper ads and website banner) detailing, for tourists, on-going press restrictions in several countries, including Turkey.
As the report explains, "Cuba, Tunisia and Turkey…Three countries that tourists dream about. This summer, Reporters Without Borders invites you to look on the other side of the picture postcard, to see the hidden face of these countries, where censorship is ever-present . . . In Turkey, you won't hear any Kurdish music on the air waves. All the product of well-oiled systems of clamping down on dissident voices.”
Below we are reprinting the special report on Turkey. For complete coverage or to get involved with the Reporters Without Borders Tourism Campaign , individuals are encouraged to visit www.rsf.fr.
As always, the Armenian National Committee of America Eastern Region urges individuals to take a few minutes to help stop human rights violations in Turkey. After reading the news release below, take a few minutes to send an appeal to Professor Hikmet Sami Türk, Minister of Justice for the Republic of Turkey
International 07.24.2002
TURKEY:
Turkey has lots of media so there's plenty of news to read.
Except for some news, which gives you a better idea of what the regime is like. The missing news is about the Kurdish minority and anything about the army's major role in national institutions. These are taboo subjects and unofficially banned.
Several dozens journalists of all opinions are hauled into court every year for defying this censorship. Anyone who criticizes the army in any way is systematically targeted. Several daily papers have been prosecuted for reporting on hunger strikes by prisoners protesting against conditions of detention.
The army imposes its views through the National Security Council, which is charge of implementing the state of emergency in southeastern Anatolia, where it has shut down more than a dozen Kurdish newspapers in the past two years. Several murders of journalists in the region are still unsolved.
The announcement of democratic reforms as part of Turkey's effort to join the European Union has not yet changed anything. Media and freedom of expression offences are still just as harshly punished with the help of an arsenal of repressive laws to protect the state against the demands of the Kurds, Islamic fundamentalists and the far left.
More than 1,000 radio stations broadcast in Turkey, but not one is allowed to put Kurdish music on the air. Those who do are promptly closed down by the country's TV and radio authority. At least five journalists are still in prison for publishing news and opinions that are nothing more than plain freedom of expression.
News in Turkey? Censorship is all you'll get!
Huseyin Kivrikoglu is one of the Predators of Press Freedom
The head of Turkey's armed forces belongs to the National Security Council, an advisory body in charge of administering the state of emergency in the south-eastern province of Anatolia. The Council is a formidable instrument of media repression and stifling democratic debate and allows the army to constantly impose its views. More than a dozen newspapers were banned in the province in 2000. Journalists who challenge the army are routinely prosecuted and usually receive heavy sentences. Expression of certain opinions still carries a prison sentence in this country which has applied for membership of the European Union. Academic and editorialist Fikret Baskaya was jailed for 16 months in June 2001 for saying the government's handling of the Kurdish question was "racist and nationalist." Five other journalists are in jail for their opinions. The European Union has several times expressed concern at the army's role in Turkey.
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Send appeals to:
Professor Hikmet Sami Türk
Minister of Justice
Adalet Bakani
Adalet Bakanligi
06659
Ankara, Turkey
Fax: +90 312 418 5667
Please take a minute and send a message to the proper officials to help bring an end to the limitations on press freedoms in Turkey.
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