JINHA

ISTANBUL – Journalists, who react to the impression on the free press, state that the first target is journalists, who writers who write the truths during the period of oppression and say, “We should stand together; our greatest strength is our unity.”

Özgür Gündem daily has been closed and the daily’s Editor-in-Chief Zana Kaya, Chief Editor İnan Kızılkaya and Publishing Consultant Board member, novelist and columnist Aslı Erdoğan was sent jail was sent to jail. Then, police raided on the office of Azadiya Welat daily and detained 25 staff members of the daily and Özgür Gün TV was pulled off the air. Those who try to silence the free press for years cannot prevent journalists.

Özgür Gelecek Newspaper’s Editor-in Chief Aslı Ceren Aslan underlined that the attacks on the free press is in the same direction of attacks on social oppositions. She said, “They attack the free press because they write the massacres and self-government resistance in Kurdistan. They don’t want the voice from Kurdistan to be heard in West. We should stand together in order to report the truth. Our greatest strength will be our unity.”

İnci Hekimoğlu from JINEPS Newspaper said, “The first target of the operation is journalists, who will report the truth despite all pressure and take the risk to be sent jail rather than stand by a regime that suspend democracy and law. Journalists have been arrested and jailed on charges of “being member of a terrorist organization”; however, no operation has been launched against media organs of ISIS. Jornalists should act together in order to stand against the impression on the press.”

Sevgim Denizaltı, member of board of the Journalist Union of Turkey (TGS) Istanbul Branch, said, “They think they can creat a rose garden without thorn by reducing us to silence. ‘Free press cannot be silenced,’ is not only a slogan. The free press really cannot be silenced.”

(nb/ödk/gc/gd)