If one wants to measure what stage the standards of democracy, freedom of thought, expression and association are in a given country, it’s enough for us to look at the state’s approaches to its practices in prisons and its pressure on the opposition press.
A newspaper with a tradition of claiming a Kurdish identity, doing impartial reporting on news in the Kurdish region, and sharing everyone’s views with the public has been shut down after nearly six months of censorship and suspensions. As a result, a new newspaper has been released.
In the 19 years since 1991, a total of 40 newspapers have had to be created as a result of repression of the tradition of press freedom, killings, and bomb attacks. Despite these pressures, authentic journalism hasn’t been renounced. Followers of the same tradition, Günlük (Daily) newspaper has become the 29th newspaper to be shut down over the last three years.
On the basis of the allegation that pages 8 and 14 of the 22 August 2009 edition of Günlük featured ‘PKK propaganda’ in the news, Istanbul’s 13th High Criminal Court gave the paper a punishment of one month of closure. This incident shows what phase censorship of the press is currently in. We wish for Turkey to be seen not as a graveyard of newspapers, but a country where different views are expressed freely.
The period that began with the government’s ‘Kurdish opening’ and later ‘democratic opening’ has reverted to the work of ‘finishing terror’. We want the censorship and repression of the opposition press to come up in the reform package initiated by the government, which is so far unclear.
Remembering that the expression of different views is a form of richness, we hope to see an end to repression of the press as a whole. Noting the universality of human rights, we perceive this incident as interference with the freedom of thought and expression and denounce the closure of Günlük.
Strongly hoping for an end to prohibitions, we hope that people will be able to think differently than the state and state institutions without fear. We’re not saying it’s necessary to ‘authorize’ the universal norm of self-expression; we’re just hoping that it won’t be outlawed.
Muharrem ERBEY, Attorney at Law
Vice President of the Human Rights Association, President of the Diyarbakır branch