(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 21 October 1999 CPJ press release: **Updates IFEX alerts of 21 October 1999** For Immediate Release October 21, 1999 CPJ Condemns Assassination of Turkish Journalist Calls on Prime Minister to Launch Immediate Investigation and to Bring Perpetrators to Justice New York, N.Y., October 21,1999-The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 21 October 1999 CPJ press release:
**Updates IFEX alerts of 21 October 1999**
For Immediate Release
October 21, 1999
CPJ Condemns Assassination of Turkish Journalist
Calls on Prime Minister to Launch Immediate Investigation and to Bring
Perpetrators to Justice
New York, N.Y., October 21,1999-The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ),
the New York-based independent press freedom group, expressed outrage at the
assassination today of prominent academic and journalist Ahmet Taner
Kislali.
Kislali, a regular columnist for the daily Cumhuriyet, was killed today in a
bomb attack in front of his suburban Ankara home. He was pronounced dead on
arrival at a local hospital after reportedly sustaining shrapnel wounds to
his face and chest. His left arm was also torn off.
Press reports, citing Turkish officials, said that the bomb, wrapped in
newspaper, was placed on the windshield of Kislali’s car. When Kislali
attempted to remove the package, it exploded.
“Killing journalists is the ultimate form of censorship,” said CPJ’s
Executive Director Ann K. Cooper. “Turkish authorities must act swiftly to
bring those responsible for this unspeakable crime to justice.”
Cooper specifically called on Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit “to launch an
immediate investigation into the incident and to make its findings public.”
While the identity of the perpetrators is unclear, Turkish security
officials have been quoted as saying that the Great Eastern Islamic Raiders’
Front (IBDA-C), an extremist, underground Islamist group, claimed
responsibility for the assassination of Kislali. Kislali was a staunch
secularist and critic of the Islamist movement in Turkey. These reports,
however, have not been verified.
In addition to his work at Cumhuriyet, Kislali taught political science at
Ankara University. He served as culture minister in the late 1970s and had
also been a member of parliament.
