Monday

20th Mar 2023

European foundation demands release of Turkish journalist

  • "There was clearly no evidence" that Aysegul Parildak is a terrorist, said Vigdis Freedom Foundation's chairwoman (Photo: DR)

A European foundation is calling for the release of a young Turkish journalist, jailed for seven-and-a-half years as a 'terrorist', in the latest of a series of detentions of reporters under president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Aysegul Parildak was jailed last week after being found guilty of being a "member of an armed terrorist organisation." The 27-year old reporter covered court affairs for the daily Zaman newspaper, and was arrested in August 2016 while taking a law exam.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

Prosecutors accused her of aiding the failed military putsch against Erdogan in July 2016.

Now the Oslo-based Vigdis Freedom Foundation has awarded Parildak its inaugural Shahnoush award, to be given every year to a female prisoner of conscience whose courage had not been internationally acknowledged.

Speaking to EUobserver from Oslo, founder and the chairwoman of the foundation, Anne Christine Kroepelien said "There was clearly no evidence that she is a terrorist. She is a law student who has a part-time job in a newspaper that was perfectly legal at the time and who reported from court."

Kroepelien herself attended one of Parildak's hearings, and said she was shocked by the jail sentence.

Kroepelien said the Foundation would start a campaign for Parıldak's release — and criticised the EU's reaction so far.

"I think European reaction is inadequate. President Erdogan is continuing his crackdown on everybody who has an opinion that differs from his. This is clearly against all the liberal values that are dear to Europe."

The only evidence submitted to the court against Parıldak was the fact that she was working for Zaman, plus her tweets and a smartphone messaging application called ByLock.

Turkish authorities seized Zaman in March 2016 and appointed pro-government trustees, four months before the coup and closed the newspaper right after the failed putsch.

Sources who followed the court case told EUobserver that judge ruled on the case solely on the existence of the ByLock app on her mobile. The judge later discarded her tweets as evidence.

However, sources who want to remain anonymous said the evidence submitted to the court about ByLock was dubious and would be inadmissable in an international court.

In May 2017 Parıldak was briefly released, pending trial, in a unanimous decision by court judges. After an online campaign on social media against the judges, the decision was reversed in a matter of hours and she was again imprisoned.

Reacting to Parıldak's sentence, an EU spokesperson told EUobserver that Turkey, as a candidate country, needs to respect the highest democratic standards and practices, including in the area of freedom of expression and media.

One more jailed journalist

On the same day Parildak was sentenced, a veteran journalist from Cumhuriyet was sentenced to three years imprisonment for a single tweet.

Oguz Guven, the editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet's website, was arrested in May for a tweet which he deleted after only 55 seconds, and held in jail for a month. He was then released, and has not yet been re-arrested to serve his three year sentence.

Turkey, an accession candidate country to the EU, is now by far the biggest jailer of journalists on earth, ahead of China.

An EU Commission delegation visited Ankara last month to discuss judicial affairs but could not get any promises on the release of journalists, or amending legislation to safeguard freedom of expression, EUobserver was told.

No harder line is expected against Turkey until at least April 2018, when a new progress report on Turkey is published.

Rebecca Harms, a German Green MEP who attended Cumhuriyet's hearings in Istanbul told this website she was very angry and sad to learn about Parıldak's sentence.

Harms said her only crime — like hundreds of her colleagues — was to work as a journalist.

Criticising the EU's thus far muted reaction, Harms called on the Council of Europe and the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg to finally accept and rule on complaints it was receiving from Turkish journalists.

"This sentence reveals again that the Turkish justice system has failed," she said.

One report from the European Parliament on Turkey has already called for the suspension of current accession talks.

According to the 2017 Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index, Turkey stands at 155 out of 180 countries, after Ethiopia and Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Stockholm Center for Freedom has estimated the number of arrested journalists in Turkey at 230.

EU summit shifts mood on Turkey amid aid cuts

EU leaders at their summit spent some three hours deliberating on relations with Turkey before asking the EU commission to come up with a plan on cutting and reorienting some €4.5 billion in pre-accession aid.

Opinion

Squeezed between China and Russia, Mongolia backs Ukraine

Due to its geography, squeezed between China and Russia, the government of Mongolia is forced to perform a balancing act. However, public opinion in Mongolia resolutely condemns the brutal attack against this sovereign nation.

Latest News

  1. 'Final warning' to act on climate change, warns IPCC
  2. 'No one is unemployable': the French social experiment
  3. Why can't we stop marches glorifying Nazism on EU streets?
  4. Op-ed debate: Should NGOs be subject to stricter transparency regulation?
  5. 'Forever chemicals' industry hit by perfect storm
  6. EU summit zooms in on global roles This WEEK
  7. EU launches 'Hydrogen Bank' — but what is it?
  8. MEPs probing spyware 'stonewalled' by EU states

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic and Baltic ways to prevent gender-based violence
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Economic gender equality now! Nordic ways to close the pension gap
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Pushing back the push-back - Nordic solutions to online gender-based violence
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: The Nordics are ready to push for gender equality
  5. Promote UkraineInvitation to the National Demonstration in solidarity with Ukraine on 25.02.2023
  6. Azerbaijan Embassy9th Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting and 1st Green Energy Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us