The Irish Journalist


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Irish support: Outside the Turkish Embassy in Dublin were (from left) Deaglán de Bréadún, Martin Fitzpatrick, Ian McGuinness, , Emma O Kelly, Gerry Carson, Séamus Dooley, Barry McCall, Paula Geraghty, Kieran Fagan, and Mary Curtin. Picture: Maxwell Photography..


Turkish coup can’t justify media abuse


“You cannot defend democracy by abusing human rights”


That was the clear message when an NUJ


delegation met Turkish First Counsellor Isil Gúeler Ileri in Dublin to discuss systematic attacks on media freedom in that country. Journalists have long been under attack in


Turkey but the government is now using emergency powers invoked after this year’s failed coup to clamp down on the media. The delegation was led by Gerry Carson, IEC Cathaoirleach and included NEC members Paula Geraghty, Barry McCall, Emma O’Kelly and Séamus Dooley, Irish Secretary. The NUJ has been working with the


International Federation of Journalists in monitoring the situation in Turkey and has received detailed reports from our four sister unions in Turkey. The government has issued decrees ordering the closure of 131 media organisations, including three news agencies, 16 television channels, 23 radio stations, 45 daily newspapers, 15 magazines and 29 publishing houses. Journalists are being issued with arrest warrants and deprived of their rights without due process.


Under the state of emergency, the authorities


can hold suspects in detention without charge for 30 days. There is an unending revolving door through which journalists are processed. Throughout 2015 the authorities cracked down


dramatically, taking over many privately-owned news outlets and arresting journalists under far- reaching anti-terror laws but now the coup is used as cover for appalling abuse of journalists and trade union leaders. The situation regarding the pro-Kurdish journalists and their media is especially worrying. Of particular concern is the banning of Ozgur


Gundem, the pro-Kurdish daily. All its journalists were taken into custody and tortured. We understand that 22 of them were released


but editor-in-chief, Inan Kkızılkaya and executive editor Bilir Zana, are still under custody and one member of its advisory board, Aslı Erdogan, a renowned author, was subsequently arrested. All this is possible by use of the Turkish anti-


terror law, known as Terörle Mücadele Kanunu, or TMK, which contains a definition of terrorism that most international experts agree is too broad and too vague.


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