Support fo Arrested Reporters Growing
The journalists’ union will continue protests against the arrest of journalists, including Ahmet Şık. AA photo
The journalists’ union will continue protests against the arrest of journalists, including Ahmet Şık. AA photo
Turkish journalists’ organizations organized visits Sunday to the homes of two reporters to show their support for their colleagues’ families and protest their arrests in an alleged coup plot.
Some 60 to 70 journalists gathered in front of the apartment of Ahmet Şık, who was formally arrested Sunday along with Nedim Şener, in the Ergenekon case. They chanted slogans such as “Ahmet and Nedim are our honor,” “Ahmet will be out, Nedim will be out, they will write again” and “We are not afraid of oppression.”
Hilmi Yarayıcı, a singer and parliamentarian from the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, was also among the protesters.
CHP chief Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu called Şık’s wife during the visits to express his support. “Ahmet and Nedim were doing journalism in order to leave an honorable future to their children. Now they are accused [of committing a crime] because of doing journalism,” Kılıçdaroğlu told Yonca Verdioğlu. He added that the CHP would be closely following the case and would provide any kind of legal help needed by the families.
The demonstrations in protest of Şık and Şener’s arrests will continue, the journalists said in a press statement accompanying Sunday’s events, which were organized by the Turkish Journalists Association, or TGC, the Turkish Journalists Union, or TGS, the Press Council and several other nongovernmental organizations.
“We won’t stop. Because if we slow down our demonstrations, the arrests of journalists will continue, that’s for sure. We will continue writing what is going on in Turkey. And we will definitely be on the streets,” said Alper Turgut, a board member of the TGS.
The journalists’ unions said they would come together in Istanbul on Tuesday to plan a demonstration schedule in protest of the latest arrests, and against other recent interventions in the freedom of the press in Turkey.
The Ergenekon case started in June 2007 with the discovery of 27 hand grenades in a shanty house belonging to a retired noncommissioned officer. In the later stages of the investigation, those in custody have been accused of planning to topple the government by staging a coup, initially by spreading chaos and mayhem.
Monday, March 7, 2011
SOURCE Hürriyet Daily News
