(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF report: REVIEW OF PRESS FREEDOM VIOLATIONS IN TURKEY August 2000 Thirteen pro-Kurd and extreme-left journalists interrogated, and six imprisoned On 5 August, Dogan Tolu, managing editor of the extreme-left Turkish periodical Türkmen and Ferdane Tolu, an employee with the paper, Gülay Arslan, editor of the extreme-left periodical Asi, […]
(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF report:
REVIEW OF PRESS FREEDOM VIOLATIONS IN TURKEY
August 2000
Thirteen pro-Kurd and extreme-left journalists interrogated, and six imprisoned
On 5 August, Dogan Tolu, managing editor of the extreme-left Turkish periodical Türkmen and Ferdane Tolu, an employee with the paper, Gülay Arslan, editor of the extreme-left periodical Asi, and Süleyman Özalp, Gültekin Arslan and Sunay Demir, Asi employees, were interrogated by police in Burnaz, southern Turkey. On the same day, Karip Polat, owner of Türkmen and Asi, was also interrogated in the region. On 9 August, Sunay Demir and Ferdane Tolu were released, but the other journalists appeared before a state prosecutor and were incarcerated in Ceyhan Prison. They have been accused of “belonging to the People’s Liberation Revolutionary Party” (Parti révolutionnaire pour la libération du peuple, DHKPC).
On 14 August, Mikail Vayiç, owner and editor-in-chief of the extreme-left weekly Yasamda Atilim, was arrested by military officers at the exit of the Gebze Prison (near Istanbul), where he was visiting a relative. On August 15, the public prosecutor of the Republic of Gebze ordered the incarceration of Vayiç for “possession of illegal magazines”.
On 17 August, Jülide Kaliç, a reporter with the extreme-left daily Yeni Evrensel, was beaten and interrogated while she was photographing a strong-armed police intervention during a commemorative ceremony in honour of Haci Bektas-i Veli, a 13th century scholar who has a cult following. She was driven to the Hacibektas police headquarters in the middle of the country. Police released her the next day, but kept her film.
On 21 August, Tuncay Sezgin, a reporter with the extreme-left bi-monthly Devrimci Demokrasi, was brutalized and interrogated by police in a court house. He was witnessing the court appearance of people who had been arrested the night before, during a demonstration against a new kind of prison. The journalist was released that evening.
On 27 August, Ergüren Top, a reporter with the pro-Kurd daily Yeni Gündem, was detained by police while he was covering a press conference held by relatives of political prisoners, in Istanbul. Two other journalists, Cengiz Kapmaz and Meral Kocamis, were also detained, while they were photographing their colleague, who was being transferred from the police station to the hospital for supervision. The next day, the journalists were released after their lawyer and the directors of their newspaper intervened.
Three journalists attacked
On 5 August, Unal Cetiner, a cameraman for Flash TV, was slightly injured and his camera was damaged by police while he was in Istanbul, covering a demonstration in Galatasaray Place against the construction of a new kind of prison that would keep prisoners more isolated.
On 23 August, Bülent Velioglu and Fatih Öner, cameramen with the Ege TV regional station were brutalized by militants from the True Path Party (DYP, liberal-right), during the inauguration of an office in Izmir. The militants criticized the journalists for the way they covered current events.
On 30 August, Izzetin Kömürcü, a reporter for the Anatolie Agency, was attacked by the brother and nephew of the mayor of Tarakli (north-western part of the country). He had published an article condemning “the construction of a business on a site protected by a preservation order”.
Journalist threatened
At the end of July, Ali Öztürk, owner and editorial writer for the right-wing regional daily Günebakis, stated in one of his articles that he was being threatened by an assassin hired by Burhan Kiroglu, former candidate for the extreme-right Nationalist Movement Party (Parti du mouvement nationaliste, MHP). In his articles, the journalist had called into question the extreme-right Minister of Public Works Koray Aydin’s practices.
A pro-Kurd daily seized
On 31 August, the pro-Kurd daily Yeni Gündem was seized by the Security Court of the State of Istanbul. The newspaper is accused of “separatist propaganda” for having published an article entitled, “The Kurdish revolution”.
473 days of suspension for three radio stations and one television station
On 27 July, the Audiovisual Council (Conseil de l’audiovisuel, RTÜK) suspended for a period of 90 days, the Antalya regional radio station, Umut Radio. The station is accused of “inciting to violence, terror and ethnic discrimination” for having broadcast a song by the extreme-left group, Cemo.
On 23 August, RTÜK decided to suspend the Özgür Radyo and Radyo Öney Flash FM radio station, as well as the musical television station, Kral TV. The council condemned Özgür Radyo, which was suspended for one year, for the 9 July broadcast of a song by the extreme-left group, Kizilrmak. The song paid homage to the young leaders of left-wing movements in the 1970s, who were killed during a police operation. Radyo Öney Flash FM has been suspended for two weeks for broadcasting programmes “about attacks against the state and the nation”. RTUK sanctioned the Kral TV television station for three days for “damaging general moral, public safety and Turkish family values.” The station broadcast erotic images.
Since 1 January, RTÜK has handed out 3,761 days worth of suspensions to 25 radio stations and 27 television stations.
Television station threatened
On 15 August, three armed individuals attempted to enter the offices of a local television station, Ege TV, in Izmir. One of them fired his gun several times, notably at the station’s transmission vehicle. The station had broadcast critical programmes about a mafia member who was in prison. No injuries resulted from the attack.
Furthermore, Reporters sans frontières continues to demand the immediate and unconditional release of journalists Yalçin Küçük, from the left-wing weekly Hepileri, who was arrested on 29 October 1998, and Hasan Özgün, from the extreme-left daily Özgür Gündem, who was arrested on 9 December 1993.
The organisation calls for fair and equitable trials for journalist Asiye Zeybek Güzel, from the extreme-left weeklies Isçinin Yolu and Atilim, who was arrested on 22 February 1997, and journalist Nureddin Sirin, from the Islamist weekly Selam, who was arrested on 6 February 1997.
