Baransu must be released immediately!

The arrest of Mehmet Baransu is the most recent incident in a process that has seen journalism in Turkey be increasingly stifled, and the clearest summary of reactions to this arrest came in the statement from the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ):
 
‘A journalist's job is to report on developments in the public interest, and it is absurd that a journalist should be prosecuted for obtaining documents – which in any case were shared with authorities. We call on Turkish authorities to immediately release Mehmet Baransu from custody and drop all charges against him.”
 
Supporting this call are not only international professional organisations but also official US sources and groups within the European Parliament, who have expressed their deep concern about the situation. These are concerns that we fully share.
 
Not only do these latest developments show the growing pressure on journalism in Turkey, but the logic upon which the decision to arrest Baransu was based sees the law being held in utter disregard.
 
The statement by Metin Feyzioğlu, president of the Union of Turkish Bar Associations, highlights the extent of the legal disaster that we are witnessing:
 
‘According to the Constitution, under the public right to freedom of information, the fact that the journalist obtained these documents and, in the name of public interest, disclosed the information contained is covered by press freedom and in no way constitutes a crime.  However, if, for example, the journalist paid money to obtain documents or used illegal methods to solicit somebody to supply these documents, he would have been an accessory to the crime of supplying classified documents.  Without existence of proof that this is the case, the journalist cannot be accused of committing a crime simply for possession of the documents. While no proof has been given, the authorities cannot even open an investigation into the journalist, let alone arrest him or put him on trial.’
 
Articles 26 and 28 of the Constitution provide for freedom of the press and the public right to information. Article 3 of the Press Law also provides the same broad definition of press freedom.
 
Unfortunately, we can no longer claim that there is the slightest indication that the government respects or pays any heed to these articles.
 
We must add to this another essential constitutional article.
 
The following statement appears in Article 90 of the Constitution:
 
‘In the case of a conflict between international agreements, duly put into effect, concerning fundamental rights and freedoms and the [national] laws, due to differences in provisions on the same matter, the provisions of international agreements shall prevail.’
 
Turkey is a signatory of the European Convention on Human Rights and a country within the system of the ECtHR. In principle therefore, in incidents of rights violations Turkey is expected, and obliged, to know and follow the legal precedents of the ECtHR.
 
In relation to Baransu’s arrest, the legal precedence related to ‘reporting on classified government documents’ was made clear by ECtHR decisions in the 2006 Radio Twist case in Slovakia and the De Telegraaf case in the Netherlands, in which the court ruled in favour of the journalists and of journalism.
 
In any liberal democracy, any prosecutor who was aware of the statements in Article 90 of the Constitution that refer to the binding nature of ECtHR decisions would not even open an investigation into, let alone arrest, a journalist for using the most basic of constitutional rights.
 
To do so, however, is to equate the most basic journalistic activities with spying, thus attempting to deter journalists from carrying out their duties.
 
Just as the case brought against the journalist Can Dündar simply for conducting an interview with a prosecutor was a calamitous development in terms of the essence of journalism, the arrest of Mehmet Baransu for ‘obtaining classified documents’ clearly shows that this ‘essence’ is now under attack.
All of these charges must be dropped immediately and Mehmet Baransu must be released.
 
Another depressing aspect highlighted by the Baransu incident is the fact that rather than focusing on developments related to the punitive sanctions that obstruct professional activities, the country’s journalists concentrate instead only on whether or not the Balyoz (Sledgehammer) operation documents that Baransu obtained were tampered with, ignoring – intentionally or unintentionally – the devastating precedence created by this arrest, which is likely to affect every independent journalist in the country, without exception.
 
From this perspective, we once again sadly witness proof that in Turkey ‘the journalist is a wolf to the journalist’.
 
But ultimately there is little need say much more than this:
 
Mehmet Baransu must be released immediately, and the illegal accusations against him must be dropped.