Free Turkey Media campaign. Stefan Simanowitz. All rights reserved.Introducing the Free Turkey Media campaign of Amnesty International, PEN, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Article 19, Human Rights Watch, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Index on Censorship and others.
Imagine if Christiane Amanpour and Kate Adie were arrested for supporting ‘terrorist organizations’ or if Mehdi Hassan and Oprah Winfrey were sentenced to life in the highest security prison for ‘plotting to overthrow the state’. This may seem wildly far-fetched, but in Turkey, this is exactly what is happening.
Some of the country’s best-known and respected journalists are currently behind bars in the world’s biggest jailer of journalists for the second year in a row. Indeed around one third of all imprisoned journalists in the world are languishing in Turkish prisons and last week’s newly published Word Press Freedom Index placed Turkey 157 out of 180 countries sandwiched between Rwanda and Kazakhstan.
