Journalists Union of Turkey and Journalists Society of Turkey, Turkey’s prominent media associations, backlashed the blocking of tweets belonging to several journalists and media outlets by a court order
The incident took place on January 15 when Istanbul 6th Peace Court took decision on blocking tweets of several organizations including Gerçek Gündem and Bugün as well as the twitter account of Ali Fuat Yılmazer, Istanbul’s then intelligence chief who is currently serving in prison.
“Let the freedom of expression free,” the organizations said in a joint statement.
“Turkey welcomed the year of 2015 as a country of bans. The latest restriction is a reflection on the fear toward media and expression freedom,” the statement cited.
Some of the highlights are as follows:
“These principle must exist together in all cases. The blocking of these principles by a government is a sign that there are damages on press and expression freedoms. It is obvious that the ones in power is violating the press and expression freedom by arbitrarily blocking dissident twitter accounts without any criteria.
“In a country where media and expression freedoms are feared to this extent, it becomes impossible to exercise the profession of journalism. It is curious to keep efforts to maintain Turkey’s image as a country of bans.
“As Journalists Union of Turkey and Journalists Society of Turkey, we are urging the government one more time to free press and expression freedom.”
Yesterday, twitter also withheld the account of fuatavni - an anonymous user who is popular for whistleblowing the government’s raid operations on Gülen Movement. (EA/BM)
* Click here to read the article in Turkish.
