Journalists Union of Turkey has elected the youngest president of his history during its 21th General Meeting. The equal gender balance at the new TGS board is maintained with an age average of 35 years. EFJ-IFJ and DJV (Germany) representatives shared solidarity messages at the General Meeting and met with banned media representatives. Journalists Union of Turkey (TGS) organised its 21th Ordinary General Meeting, chaired by Canan Onurer (President of Basin-Sen in Cyprus), in Istanbul on 8 and 9 October 2016 with the participation of members, delegates and international guests. The General Meeting elected Gökhan Durmus (former TGS Istanbul Branch) at 33 years…

The presidents of the European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ-IFJ) and the representatives of the other partner organisations of the Council of Europe Platform for the Safety of Journalists met with the Council of Europe´s Secretary General, Thorbjørn Jagland, yesterday, in Strasbourg, to discuss the possible follow up to the media freedom alerts published on the Platform with regard to Turkey in the aftermath of the 15 July failed coup. The Secretary General briefed them on the Council of Europe actions so far and on-going co-operation with Turkey, as a member state of the organisation. Since the coup attempt, the…

The European and Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has received today (05/10/2016) a delegation of journalists working for Med Nûçe television. The signal of the Kurdish channel based in Belgium has been removed on Monday (03/10/2016 at 10:00) by Eutelsat SA, a French sattelite provider, on Turkish request because “the content is not in line with public order directives of the term’s between us as well as with the laws which regulate TV distribution in Europe and surrounding countries”. The EFJ strongly condemned the action considered as a media freedom violation and reported the case to the Council of Europe’s platform…

update : Eutelsat has removed the signal of the Kurdish television as of 03/10/2016 at  10:00 The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has learn today (30/09/2016) that Eutelsat SA, the French satellite provider hosting over 6000 televisions channels, is planning “to remove immediately”  Med Nuçe TV, a Kurdish language television broadcasting from Belgium, from its transponder because “the content is not in line with public order directives of the term’s between us as well as with the laws which regulate TV distribution in Europe and surrounding countries”. According to EFJ sources, Eutelsat SA has received pressure from RTÜK (Turkish Radio Television Supreme Council)…

Update on 04.10.2016: Turkish authorities cut the signal of IMC TV, sealed the building of Hayatin Sesi TV, raided the office of Özgür Radyo and detained journalists / media workers. Update on 30.09.2016, IMC TV was added to the list of banned TV channels. The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ-IFJ) have today (29/09/2016) backed its affiliates TGS and TGC in condemning the removal of at least 11 TV channels in Turkey including IMC TV, Hayatın Sesi, Azadi TV, Jiyan TV, Van TV, TV 10, Denge TV and Zarok TV from the national satellite platform TÜRKSAT. According to media reports, the administrative decision…

This morning (21/09/2016), the Caglayan Court of Justice in Istanbul heard 5 different prosecution cases against journalists. The EFJ-IFJ and its affiliates TGS (Journalists Union of Turkey), DISK-Basin-Is (Journalists Union of Turkey from DISK) and TGC (Journalists Association of Turkey) have been able to observe the following cases : the appeal in the MIT Trucks case where journalists Can Dündar and Erdem Gül  working for Cumhuriyet newspaper who were sentenced to 5 years in jail for revealing state secrets and arms trafficking between Turkish intelligence services (MIT) and Syrian armed rebel groups. The hearing was held in secret but this did not…