JINHA

ISTANBUL – Of the four recipients of this year's Ayşe Nur Zarakolu award for freedom of thought, three were unable to attend the ceremony because they were dead or in jail. Turkey's Human Rights Association (İHD) has awarded the prize to those who resist censorship since 2002.

The winners this year were journalist Özgür Amed, imprisoned for attending a march in Roboski; journalist Deniz Fırat, who lost her life recording footage of Daesh's attack on the Maxmur refugee camp in Southern Kurdistan; political prisoner Hasan Gülbahar; and the documentary Bakur, censored at the Istanbul Film Festival earlier this year for depicting the lives of PKK guerrillas.

Ayşe Nur Zarakolu was a journalist repeatedly jailed for her critical journalism and publishing activities in Turkey, in a time after the 1980 coup when many were silent. She lost her life in 2002 after a struggle with cancer. The award ceremony, held every year on her birthday, has recently honored those who covered the Gezi resistance and the journalists tried in the KCK trials.

Ertuğrul Mavioğlu, one of the directors of Bakur, was the only awardee able to receive the prize in person. Deniz Fırat's sister, Berivan Yıldıztan, and journalist Özgür Amed both sent letters that were read at the ceremony.

(fk/cm)