Rally in support of jailed Turkish journalists held in Istanbul

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkish journalists and representatives of the Confederation of Revolutionary Workers’ Union, or DİSK, marched Tuesday, April 26, from Istanbul’s Sultanahment district to nearby Beyazit, calling for an end to pressure on media in Turkey, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

The march named “Halt pressure on the media” and was also aimed to call for participation in the May 1 celebrations in Istanbul and all over Turkey.

Members of the Freedom for Journalists Platform, or GÖP, Turkey’s Journalists Union, or TGS, and the “Friends of [recently arrested journalists] Ahmet [Şık] and Nedim [Şener]” group, as well as students of the Student Youth Union, or Genç-Sen, and DİSK marched holding banners that read “No to pressure on media. We invite you to Taksim on May 1st” and “Even if we get burned, we will touch it," referring to Şık’s telling reporters, “Those who touch [the Fetullah Gülen community] get burned” as he was being detained by police on March 6.

“Concerns for media workers are concerns for all laborers. The problems of those who endure any kind of pressure for the sake of people’s right to get informed are problems for the labor classes, too,” said Tayfun Görgün, DİSK’s secretary general, in a press statement.

“Nowadays, intellectuals and writers are either isolated in prisons or forced to become partisans,” Görgün said, adding that not much has changed since the Sept. 12, 1980, coup period. He also urged for Şık, Şener and the other journalists to be released.

“Journalists will always resist pressure,” said lawyer and Radikal writer Özgür Mumcu in a statement on behalf of the Friends of Şık and Şener Group.