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Turkish media in exile? Think again

July 14, 2017 By administrator

Can Dündar, co-founder, editor-in-chief, Özgürüz

By  Can Dündar, co-founder, editor-in-chief, Özgürüz 

Freedom is like air or water: something you appreciate only when it’s gone. Freedom for Turkish journalists was never as abundant as air or water–but nor was it ever as scarce as it has become in the last year.

Last July 15, a dangerous coup attempt occurred, unexpected and unsupported by the democrats in Turkey… But the democrats suffered as much as the putschists, since President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan seized the opportunity to put this failed attempt–which he called a “blessing from God”–to use as justification to pursue a witch hunt against all his opponents and to change the constitution, seizing all power.

Since July 15, 2016, some 150,000 people have faced criminal investigation, 50,000 have been arrested, and 70,000 civil servants have been dismissed. Nearly all opposition newspapers have been closed. Several have been placed under the state’s administration. More than 150 journalists and media workers have been arrested, in a campaign that has made Turkey the world’s largest prison for journalists. When the Committee to Protect Journalists last did its global census of journalists imprisoned around the world, Turkey held at least 81 in prison, more than any other country in any other year since CPJ began keeping records in 1992.

The result is silence, not only for those imprisoned but also for the rest who are still free. The climate of fear created by these arrests might have failed to silence some brave colleagues, but it has intimidated the majority of the media. It is now impossible to write, say, or ask anything that challenges the government. What we have witnessed is not only the obliteration of individual media outlets, one by one, but the obliteration of an entire profession.

Just as someone locked up in a cell tries to breathe through the tiniest gap, we too have sought alternative ways of telling the truth in this repressive environment. Some of us turned to social media, whereas others ventured to create media outlets in exile.

A skein of troubles

As luck would have it, I happened to be abroad on July 15, 2016. Taking my lawyers’ advice, I stayed in Germany, deciding to continue my work in journalism–something that was becoming increasingly impossible in Turkey. Hundreds of my colleagues were unemployed; I would join them to reach out to our viewers and readers in Turkey. Boldly would we give them the news that they could not receive otherwise.

Experience would teach me that this was no easy feat.

We encountered countless troubles that had never occurred to us: How would be finance it, first and foremost? With foreign funding? That would have been an enormous handicap for someone accused of espionage. Through subscription? How would willing supporters send their contributions? By risking finding their ways into police files?

And what about staff? It was hard to find professional Turkish journalists in Germany. Contributing to an opposition media outlet from Turkey was extremely risky. What if contributors used pen names? Would our correspondence be monitored? At any rate, we wanted to broadcast. Would staff wear masks? How many of my colleagues had to put the phone down sadly, saying they wished I had never called in the first place?

Let’s say we overcame all this. How would we reach our viewers or readers?

#Özgürüz (#WeAreFree)

Against all odds, with little support and just a handful of journalists, we founded a website, and named it #Özgürüz. We are free to say and write whatever we wish!

But the Turkish government has given itself a free hand to censor us. We were due to go live on the January 24. The government banned us on January 23. They never saw a word of what we had to say. No matter: They did it anyway. Thus did we gain the honor of being perhaps the first website to be banned before its launch.

And so it continued. Sources were hard to find. People were afraid to talk to an opposition media outlet that broadcast from abroad. Government censorship was an epidemic that silenced everyone.

Then, of course, there was the matter of security. It didn’t take long for a pro-government TV channel to do perhaps its first piece of investigative reporting in tracking down our office. One day, out of the blue, a crew broadcast from outside our door, or “the den of treason,” as they called it. They showed the building, down to the window of our office, and announced the address and our arrival and departure times on air. We are sitting ducks now.

Against all odds

We’ve had too many troubles to count; yet it is possible–nay, it is essential–to insist on telling the truth.

The first rule is to never give up. This resolve finds a way to overcome all troubles, since courage is as infectious as fear.

When we set off, brave supporters joined in. Our readers invested modest amounts. Crowdfunding paved our way. We placed a counter at the entrance to the office; it trilled with the joyful news of new contributions every day. This is how we found brave reporters and writers.

Access to our website was blocked in Turkey but Turkish readers were well versed in bypassing those blocks; they managed to read our articles. When the website was blocked, we pressed on through other internet channels: YouTube, Periscope, Facebook, Twitter… If one was blocked, we aired through another: the higher the wall, the easier to drill a hole.

It was hard to reach sources willing to appear on a live broadcast but news still came to us–news that no one in Turkey was brave enough to broadcast. Asking for contributions from well-known columnists was hard, but this was also an opportunity to train new ones.

In time, we grew ever bolder under the constant threat of attack.

Now we had brave reporters in the field, and more: citizen journalism lent a hand. We gave our Periscope password to all who wanted to be heard, so they could broadcast via #Özgürüz . This allowed us to reach 100,000 followers in a short period.

‘I’m glad I’m a journalist’

“Media in exile” is one of the most powerful channels that can confront repressive governments, an oasis that offers the freedom you long for, like air or water, new proof that a true journalist never gives up, a new era of experience that makes us say, “I’m glad I’m a journalist.”

Translated from the Turkish.

 

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Can Dündar, media in exile, Turkish

GERMANY Armenian Genocide: Can Dündar a parallel between the situation in 1915 and currently in Turkey

September 19, 2016 By administrator

genocide-and-today-turkeyIn an article published Saturday, September 17 Turkish journalist Can Dündar made in the German newspaper Die Zeit a parallel between the situation in 1915 and currently in the relations between Turkey and Germany.

Can Dündar, former editor of the Turkish daily Cumhuriyet was arrested in November 2015 after the publication of his newspaper pictures showing the Turkish intelligence services providing arms to Syrian rebels. Can Dündar was sentenced to five years and ten months in prison for “divulging state secrets”. He survived an assassination attempt and now lives in exile in Germany.

Can Dündar in particular evokes the book of Jürgen Gottschlich who discovered that Hans Freiherr von Wangenheim, German Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1912 to 1915, knew that the Turks were planning the Armenian Genocide. In the book “Help genocide” ( “zum Beihilfe Völkermord”) Gottschlich showed that the ambassador was not the only one to know but that German leaders have not responded saying instead, “No, we need Turks. “

Can Dündar continues: “Recent tensions between Ankara and Berlin because of the military base of Incirlik remake arise this story. Germany has stationed Tornado combat aircraft and 250 soldiers to Incirlik. Berlin wants to invest in the construction of military facilities in the amount of 58 million euros. With training programs and joint exercises Germany supports the modernization of the Turkish army. And Germany is seeking to have a say in the Middle East.

But in June, the Bundestag passed the Armenian resolution (…) Promptly Ankara denied the German MPs permission to visit Incirlik. Tensions have risen so far and Foreign Minister Steinmeier has threatened that if no authorization German units withdrew Incirlik and reconnaissance flights of NATO. His Turkish counterpart Çavuşoğlu said: “If Germany take the necessary measures, we will allow the visit” Chancellor Merkel was stuck in a dilemma. On the one hand of the public in its own country, on the other the ” ‘alliance of convenience between Germany and Turkey. “ They chose the latter. Immediately before leaving for the G20 summit in China, they said on television that the decision of the Bundestag has no binding force. The spokesman Seibert reiterated government (…) what has to be considered a genocide, the courts should decide. This is also the position of Turkey. Turkish Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu also announced the good news: “Germany met our requirements.” The crisis is resolved. Next month will be the trip of a German delegation at Incirlik. Meanwhile, Turkey has accused Syria that its entry is not directed against the Islamic State but against the Kurds. (…) I can not imagine that the German ambassador wrote to the Foreign Ministry in this world torn by a state of emergency and the situation in Syria and the response from Berlin. “We need the Turks’.”

Monday, September 19, 2016,
Stéphane © armenews.com

Filed Under: Genocide, News Tagged With: 1915, armenian genocide, between, Can Dündar, parallel, situation, Turkey

Cumhuriyet journalists Can Dundar & Erdem Gul go on secret trial in Terrorist State of Turkey

March 25, 2016 By administrator

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journalists Can Dundar & Erdem Gul

Two Turkish journalists are standing trial on charges of espionage and aiding a terror organization. They were detained after publishing a video purportedly showing government weapons deliveries to Syria’s civil war.

The two journalists from the opposition “Cumhuriyet” newspaper appeared in an Istanbul court on Friday, facing life imprisonment for allegedly revealing state secrets.

Shortly after the proceedings got underway, the prosecutor asked that the hearing be closed to the public in a request that was granted by the judge.

Can Dundar, the paper’s editor-in-chief, and Ankara correspondent Erdem Gul, were arrested in November after publishing a video purportedly showing Turkish trucks transporting weapons over the border to Syrian militants. The report sparked an outcry, and gave rise to speculation about the government’s role in the Syrian conflict and its alleged ties to Islamist groups in the country.

The journalists spent three months in prison before the Constitutional court ordered the pair should be released pending trial. Following the decision, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized the court and vowed the journalists would pay a “heavy price” for their reporting.

Before appearing in court Friday, Dundar, 54, told Reuters he would use the trial to refocus attention on the story.

“We will lay out all of the illegalities and make this a political prosecution … The state was caught in a criminal act, and it is doing all that it can to cover it up.”

Call for charges to be dropped

In the lead-up to the trial, international media advocacy groups and human rights organizations called on Turkey to drop all charges against the journalists.

“The trial of Dundar and Gul is a test for the state of law in Turkey,” Christophe Deloire, secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders, said.

“Their release was encouraging, but things are only beginning now,” he added.

Meanwhile, more than 100 prominent writers, including Nobel Laureates, have written an open letter to Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu demanding and end to what they describe as a crackdown on media freedoms.

“We believe that Can Dundar and Erdem Gul are facing life in prison simply for carrying out their legitimate work as journalists,” the letter said.

Freedom of the press

Turkey ranks 149th out of 180 countries on the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index.

Human rights groups say Turkey’s authoritarian government is increasingly seeking to stifle opposition press and critical voices in the country. Several news outlets have been seized by the government and handed over to businesses close to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). A number of journalists have been fired for criticizing the government, while more than a dozen have been imprisoned.

Most recently, the government this month seized control of the country’s biggest opposition newspaper “Zaman.” In that case, the paper’s headquarters were stormed by police and the paper’s editors were sacked and replaced.

nm/jil (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Can Dündar, Erdem Gul, journalists, secret trial, Turkey

Turkey Cumhuriyet journalists draw front page battle line against Erdoğan

June 2, 2015 By administrator

he front page of Cumhuriyet published on Tuesday. (Photo Today's Zaman)

he front page of Cumhuriyet published on Tuesday. (Photo Today’s Zaman)

With their names and photographs accompanying a headline that reads “We are responsible [for the story],” journalists at the Cumhuriyet daily have responded to a threat made by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan against the paper’s editor-in-chief for running a story and photos that provided proof of illegal arms shipments to Syria.  report ZAMAN

Speaking during a live broadcast on the state-run TRT Haber news channel on Sunday night, Erdoğan said: “I have filed a lawsuit [against the editor-in-chief]. … And the person who did the exclusive report about it will pay a heavy price for it. I won’t let him go [unpunished].”

The Cumhuriyet article said “We employees at Cumhuriyet assume responsibility along with our editor-in-chief for the story revealing the truth about an incident that was denied by state officials for months.” It is a journalist’s duty to inform the public about the dangers and threats of an arms smuggling incident whose political, legal and diplomatic remifications the public is not aware of, the article added.

In a headline story on Friday, Cumhuriyet published images from a video in the investigation file proving that National Intelligence Organization (MİT) trucks had carried weapons, contradicting the government’s earlier claim that they were only carrying humanitarian aid to Turkmens in war-torn Syria.

Erdoğan, who claimed the daily’s sole aim in publishing the report on the trucks operated by MİT was to tarnish Turkey’s image, accused the daily of being involved in spying by having published the report.

Dündar also challenged Erdoğan in a message on Twitter on Monday, saying: “The person who committed this crime will pay a heavy price for that. We will not let him go [unpunished],” also maintaining that Erdoğan is the one who is involved in crime by arranging arms-laden trucks to be sent to rebel groups in Syria.

On Jan. 19 of last year, three trucks bound for Syria — which the government admitted were operated by MİT — were intercepted by gendarmes in the southern province of Adana after prosecutors received tip-offs that they were illegally carrying arms to Syria. Shortly after top officials gave statements about the trucks, Syrian Turkmens denied that any such truck had arrived from Turkey.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Can Dündar, Cumhuriyet, MİT trucks, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Syria, Turkey

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