The trial involving 17 journalists and executives of Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet will start on Monday 24 July at 9:00am in Istanbul’s Çağlayan Justice Palace. The trial is expected to continue until Thursday 28 July. The International and European Federation of Journalists (IFJ and EFJ) join their affiliates TGS and DISK Basin-Is  in condemning the trial which is based on unfounded accusations that the paper is secretly supporting the PKK – a militant Kurdish organisation and FETO, the group allegedly responsible for last year’s failed coup. EFJ president Mogens Blicher Bjerregård will be present at the trial on behalf of both…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) welcomes the resolution of the European Parliament calling for the immediate release of arrested journalists in Turkey. The European Parliament called on Thursday for Turkey’s European Union accession talks to be suspended if Ankara fully implements plans to expand President Erdogan‘s powers. The resolution passed by parliament in Strasbourg (477 in favour, 64 against and 97 abstentions) “calls on the Commission and the member states… to formally suspend the accession negotiations with Turkey without delay if the constitutional reform package is implemented unchanged.” The European Parliament reminds its previous resolution on the situation of journalists…

Following the specific request of the delegates at the Annual Meeting held in Bucharest on 18-19 May 2017 asking for a strong position of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), the Steering Committee issued the following statement regarding the situation of media freedom in Turkey : The EFJ, fighting in cooperation with the IFJ and all its affiliates, welcomes the “send a postcard to jailed journalists in Turkey campaign” in the framework of its #JournalismisNOTacrime / #Gazeteciliksuçdegildir project inviting everyone to send written moral support to journalists and media workers in jail. 165 journalists are still in jail according to…

The International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ and EFJ) yesterday sent an observer to Istanbul to monitor the first trial against journalists accused of participating in the 15 failed coup of last July. The trial, which may shed light on how the courts will approach numerous cases concerning the right to freedom of expression and the right to a fair trial under the state of emergency, has amplified international concerns over press freedom in Turkey. Raffaele Lorusso, General Secretary of the affiliate Federazione Nazionale della Stampa Italiana (FNSI) and an IFJ Executive Committee member, yesterday attended the trial of…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the Türkiye Gazeteciler Sendikasi (TGS) have printed postcard with the names of the 158 journalists and media workers currently jailed in Turkey forming the letter G for #Gazeteciliksuçdegildir or #Journalismisnotacrime and they invite you to send a moral support to all the journalists and media workers in jail. How to do it? Get in touch with the union or professional association in your country and ask them to send you the specific postcard or simply print a PDF version available here. You can also use the PSD files…

Tuncer Çetinkaya, a journalist and former regional representative of Zaman newspaper in Antalya, has been detained for 11 months in Turkey and is now held in Antalya prison. He urgently needs medical care. According to his relatives who contacted the IFJ-EFJ, Tuncer Çetinkaya is seriously ill and suffers from autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) which requires regular and specific treatment. His daughter reports that during his first three months in jail,  Çetinkaya was not allowed to use his drugs or see a doctor. His health situation has steadily worsened and he has already lost 54% of his kidney. He also lost a lot of…