hasan Cemal
The Platform for Independent Journalism (P24) held an event on World Press Freedom Day at the Swedish Consulate in İstanbul during which they premiered the first screening of “Persona Non Grata,” a 41-minute documentary illustrating the difficult position many Turkish journalists have fallen into with the increasing oppression of the media.
The documentary, directed by Tuluhan Tekelioğu, interviewed various people who have faced pressure from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in recent years.
Featured in the film were journalists such as editor-in-chief of the Cumhuriyet daily, Can Dündar, who faced an investigation on the charge of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after a lawyer for Erdoğan filed a complaint over an interview Dündar had with a prosecutor who oversaw a corruption probe. Doğan Media Group owner Aydın Doğan, who has previously been openly targeted by President Erdoğan and Ahmet Şık, who served a year in prison due to the Ergenekon trials, were also featured in the documentary.
In the documentary media mogul Doğan for the first time criticized the airing of a documentary about penguins on one of his channels, CNN Türk, when the Gezi Park protests were at their peak in the summer of 2013, a move that had attracted a lot of criticism to the channel. “That was complete foolishness. It was not a deliberate act,” said Doğan.
The Gezi Park protests were sparked by government plans to demolish Gezi Park in İstanbul’s Taksim neighborhood.
Speakers for Sunday’s event included veteran journalists and founding members of P24, Yavuz Baydar, Hasan Cemal, Andrew Finkel and Peter Preston, the former editor of the Guardian newspaper.
The event was held in commemoration of late journalist Mehmet Ali Birand, who lost his life to cancer in 2013.