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RWB concerned over aggressive Turkish paper campaign
August 24, 2012 - 12:20 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Reporters Without Borders is very disturbed by the
aggressive smear campaign that the Islamist and nationalist daily Yeni
Akit (New Agreement) and its website, Habervaktim.com, have been
waging in recent days against four leading journalists - Ali
Bayramoglu, Cengiz Candar, Hasan Cemal and Yasemin Congar - because of
their views on Turkey's Kurdish issue, the organization said on its
website.
"By targeting people committed to tolerance and peace, this campaign
is trying to block any evolution in Turkish society," Reporters
Without Borders said. "Experience has shown the degree to which this
kind of prejudiced, xenophobic and paranoid discourse is not just
harmful but also dangerous. Words have meaning and the accusations
levelled against these journalists expose them to real peril. This
virulent hate campaign must stop at once and everything possible must
be done to protect its targets."
Yeni Akit has been attacking the well-known columnist Ali Bayramoglu
for several weeks, accusing him of being an Armenian who "defends
Armenian ideas with a racist basis." A defender of minority rights and
friend of Hrant Dink, the Turkish-Armenian Agos newspaper editor
murdered in 2007, Bayramoglu has been branded by Yeni Akit as a
"despicable enemy of the Turks' and as one who "even hides the fact
that he is Armenian from his friends."
Alluding to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the newspaper
said Bayramoglu's "support for the terrorist organization" had been
demonstrated by his participation in a conference in London entitled
"In search of solutions to the Kurdish issue."
The demands of Turkey's Kurdish minority continue to be one of the
most sensitive issues for the Turkish media to cover. The crackdown on
peaceful Kurdish activists and Kurdish media has intensified in recent
months and the trial of 44 pro-Kurdish journalists, of whom 36 are in
preventive detention, is due to open on September 10.
August 24, 2012 - 12:20 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Reporters Without Borders is very disturbed by the
aggressive smear campaign that the Islamist and nationalist daily Yeni
Akit (New Agreement) and its website, Habervaktim.com, have been
waging in recent days against four leading journalists - Ali
Bayramoglu, Cengiz Candar, Hasan Cemal and Yasemin Congar - because of
their views on Turkey's Kurdish issue, the organization said on its
website.
"By targeting people committed to tolerance and peace, this campaign
is trying to block any evolution in Turkish society," Reporters
Without Borders said. "Experience has shown the degree to which this
kind of prejudiced, xenophobic and paranoid discourse is not just
harmful but also dangerous. Words have meaning and the accusations
levelled against these journalists expose them to real peril. This
virulent hate campaign must stop at once and everything possible must
be done to protect its targets."
Yeni Akit has been attacking the well-known columnist Ali Bayramoglu
for several weeks, accusing him of being an Armenian who "defends
Armenian ideas with a racist basis." A defender of minority rights and
friend of Hrant Dink, the Turkish-Armenian Agos newspaper editor
murdered in 2007, Bayramoglu has been branded by Yeni Akit as a
"despicable enemy of the Turks' and as one who "even hides the fact
that he is Armenian from his friends."
Alluding to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the newspaper
said Bayramoglu's "support for the terrorist organization" had been
demonstrated by his participation in a conference in London entitled
"In search of solutions to the Kurdish issue."
The demands of Turkey's Kurdish minority continue to be one of the
most sensitive issues for the Turkish media to cover. The crackdown on
peaceful Kurdish activists and Kurdish media has intensified in recent
months and the trial of 44 pro-Kurdish journalists, of whom 36 are in
preventive detention, is due to open on September 10.