CHP GENEL BAŞKAN YARDIMCISI ÜNAL ÇEVİKÖZ’ ÜN AKPM KONUŞMASI 28.01.2020

Threats to media freedom and journalists’ security in Europe

Mr. President,
Honorable members of the Assembly,
The month of January is a month of mourning for all the democratic forces in
Turkey who believe in the right to freedom of expression, as well as free,
independent and pluralistic media. It is a month of mourning because three
journalists in Turkey have been killed in January.
On January 24, 1993, Uğur Mumcu, a prominent investigative Journalist of the
Newspaper Cumhuriyet, was murdered by a terrorist attack in Ankara.
On January 8, 1996, another journalist of the Newspaper Evrensel, Metin
Göktepe was murdered in İstanbul.
On January 19, 2007, Hrant Dink, another prominent writer and Journalist of
Newspaper Agos was murdered in Istanbul.
Therefore the fact that we are discussing the report on "threats to media
freedom and journalists" in our January session has a very important meaning
for the public opinion in Turkey, and I would like to express my sincere
appreciation to the rapporteur for the excellent report he has prepared for our
consideration. The report refers to all the abuses of freedom of expression and
rights of journalists in various member countries and all the recommendations
in this report are very pertinent.
This report also comes at a time when we observe an increasing number of
intimidation, harassment and attacks against the safety and security of
journalists. There are various forms of such intimidation. For example, labelling
journalists as “terrorists” is one such method. In Turkey, such a method is
frequently used. When there is talk about "detained journalists" in Turkey, the
usual response you hear from the authorities is based on arguments that
those people are not in prison because of their activities of journalism, but that
they are charged with other criminal offenses.
It is therefore very appropriate that the report calls for ending the abuse of
penal code and anti-terrorism laws to silence journalists.

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In 2019, 33 journalists and media workers were sentenced to 63 years and 11
months of imprisonment in Turkey as part of their journalistic activities or
political reasons.
It is very important that the governments should act in full respect of the
Council of Europe standards concerning the right to freedom of expression and
here comes the necessity of reassuring the safety of journalists. We
parliamentarians have a major responsibility in this context. The principles
enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights are our fundamental
reference and I have to underline that many court decisions fail to comply with
the recommendations of the Venice Commission or with the decisions of the
European Court on Human Rights.
I support the report as it is and I hope it will become a basic reference to
correct all the wrongdoings in each and every member mentioned in it in due
course.