A Diyarbakır based comprehensive detention operation was carried out against journalists and media organisations on June 8, 2022. While the government tries to impose restrictions to silence the free press and to prevent the people from hearing the facts, journalists who are working under very difficult circumstances are being detained and media outlets are shut down. Turkey which ranks amongst the bottom of the World Press Freedom list, moves to the very bottom of the list with its restrictions on the press. Everyday a new investigation is launched against a journalist or a news outlet. Less than a week after our Co-chair Dicle Müftüoğlu was detained and released, dozens of journalists including our other Co-chair Serdar Altan was detained with a raid on their homes in the dead of the night. The journalists who go to work everyday and appear on televisions were detained with a raid on their homes like they are doing something hiding something, just to criminalise them. However we saw that they were detained for their activities as journalist from the statement made by the police.
The current government in Turkey is in a political, economic and social crisis. Anti-democratic practices in the country are increasing day by day. As a result, the economic crisis deepens. The government resorts to the method of war to make people forget the violations of rights experienced in Turkey and the economic crisis. It also applies pressure and violence to those who oppose the ways of the ruling party. In the last two weeks, it has carried out extensive operations against opposition youth, democratic politicians and women's rights defenders. Unfortunately, the government is targeting all opposition groups in order to get out of the mess it created.
Now, an operation was carried out against the journalists who covered these operations and exposed the war policies.
Serdar Altan, Safiye Alagaş, Gülşen Koçuk, Aziz Oruç, Ömer Çelik, Suat Doğuhan, Ramazan Geciken, Esmer Tunç, Neşe Toprak, Zeynel Bulut, Mazlum Güler, Mehmet Şahin, Elif Üngür, İbrahim Koyuncu, Remziye Temel, Mehmet Yalçın, Abdurrahman Öncü, Mehmet Ali Ertaş, Lezgin Akdeniz and Kadir Bayram were detained within the scope of this operation. Six institutions where journalists work were raided and their technical equipment was confiscated. A total of 6 media organizations, including two news agencies (MA-Mezopotamya Agency, JINNEWS), one Kurdish-language newspaper (Xwebûn), and three production companies (Piya, Ari and Pel) were targeted. The press materials in these raided institutions were confiscated by the police and taken to the police station. Mehmet Ali Ertaş, Editor-in-Chief of Xwebûn Newspaper, was kept waiting in handcuffs for 10 hours during the search at his place.
The free press tradition of the Kurdish journalists that continues for more than 30 years has been targeted and pressured from day one. Dozens of free press workers were executed by soldiers, police or paramilitary forces. Thousands were imprisoned. According to the latest report of our association published on June 5, 2022, 60 journalists are in prison. We understand with this operation that they want more journalists in prisons. As long as a common reaction is not organised against these attacks against journalists, the repression policies of the government will yield results.
As the Dicle Fırat Journalists Association (DFG), we struggle to protect the rights of free press workers under all circumstances. As the association of journalists who practice their profession with the motto "The Truth Will Not Be Concealed", we will continue this insistence. We will fight for the release of our journalist friends who are currently detained and imprisoned, and for a future where they can carry out their professional activities in a democratic and free country. We call on all journalists and professional organizations fighting in the national and international arena to be in solidarity with us while carrying out this struggle. We can only achieve a democratic environment in which freedom of expression and freedom of the press are guaranteed through a joint struggle.
DICLE FIRAT JOURNALISTS ASSOCIATION
