Turkey: Alarming Crackdown on Journalists, Desperate Appeal to UN

by Uzay Bulut  •  September 17, 2019 at 4:00 am

        

• The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention was held on September 13. Sadly, no one at the meeting addressed the persecution of journalists in Turkey -- not José Guevara Bermúdez, Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group, nor Béla Szombati, who represented the European Union, nor any other participant.
• Amnesty International recently tagged Turkey the "world's largest prison for journalists."
• The United Nations Human Rights Council, if it wishes to change its image from that of a laughing stock, should put at the top of its agenda calling Ankara to task. Meanwhile, however, Erdoğan's violations of freedom of speech need to be exposed daily and loudly condemned -- not only by members of the UN and the media, but by any and all allies of Turkey -- and freedom of expression -- in the West.

(Image source: iStock)

International human-rights and press-freedom organizations recently appealed to the United Nations to take action against the ongoing abuse of journalists by the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

In a letter to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on September 3, eighteen organizations -- led by the group ARTICLE 19, which promotes freedom of expression -- called on "all Member and Observer States committed to media freedom, democracy and the rule of law" to "speak out and address the Turkish government's repressive campaign against freedom of expression" in the forum of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention during the UNHRC's 42nd regular session.

The letter reads, in part:

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