EJ and Criminal prosecution of journalsts in Turkey

05/08/2013

EJ’s Outrage at the Heavy Sentences Against Journalists in Turkey

 

The EJ expresses its deepest outrage at the heavy sentences handed down today in Turkey to 22 journalists involved in the Ergenekon trial. It is unbelievable that journalists who have already spent several years in arbitrary preventive detention are sentenced to such long jail terms, including life imprisonment. Considering all the circumstances surrounding the trial it is obvious that the unprecedented.sentences are politically motivated. They come to justify the claim that in Turkey the right to freedom of press and expression is not only severely undermined but totally supressed.

Regarding the application of Turkey to become an EU member we pledge the EU Institutions to seriously consider if the outcome the Ergenekon case is compatible with the principles and rules constituting the basis of the European project and if necessary to take due action. A country which sends journalists to prison for political reasons cannot even pretend to belong to Europe.

EJ strongly supports the position on the case expressed by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (see: http://www.osce.org/fom/104157) and will join other journalists’ associations in organizing all possible actions in support of our jailed Turkish colleagues.