Turkey remains the biggest prison for journalists

After 6 journalists have been jailed for life last week in Turkey for leading a left-wing group – which Turkey said is a terrorist organization – the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) sent a message to the Turkish government stating “journalists are not terrorists”. This happened while Turkey and the European Union re-started negotiations after a three year break.

Ricardo Gutiérrez, EFJ Secretary General, stressed that Turkey is abusing its anti-terrorism law to censor and punish journalists. That’s unacceptable for the French MEP Jean-Marie Cavada, a member of the European People’s Party (conservatives) in the European Parliament. For him, Turkey should not join the EU because it doesn’t respect the European standards in terms of democracy, human rights and press freedom. According to the figures of the Turkish Journalists Union, more than 180 journalists have been jailed in Turkey since 2009 and around 60 of them are still waiting for a judgment.