Let journalists go, says European Parliament

 
 The European Parliament, meeting in Strasbourg on Wednesday, pledged support for Turkish journalists behind bars, warning Ankara not to use the July 15 failed military coup as an excuse “to stifle legitimate and peaceful opposition.”
 
In a motion passed with all party support on 27 October, parliament called for the freeing of those being held “without compelling evidence of criminal activity”– a list which included “well-known journalists such as Nazli Ilicak, Sahin Alpay, Asli Erdogan, Murat Aksoy, Ahmet Altan and Mehmet Altan.”  The use of pre-trial detention should be used only in exceptional circumstances, the resolution reads. The resolution also refers to co-editors-in-chief Bilir Kaya and Inan Kizilkaya of the closed daily Özgür Gündem and to claims that both men suffered torture.
 
“Stop the witch hunt of journalists, release those in prison and restore freedom of speech,” urged Swedish Moderate Party MEP, Anna Maria Corazza Bildt in the debate the evening before the vote.
 

Rebecca Harms, president of the Greens-European Free Alliance group, was among the many in that debate who condemned the attempted seizure of power, describing the 15 July as one of the “saddest nights of my political life.” She called for prosecution of the perpetrators, but “prosecution based on the rule of law.” Harms said those like the Altan brothers were paying a price simply for advocating “liberal ideas, liberal democracy for Turkey.”
 
Euro MPs took turns, used their allotted minutes to read from the list of 133 journalists currently behind bars in Turkey.  “Behind every name is a personal tragedy – nothing to do with the fight against terrorism,” said Eduard Kukan, a former foreign minister of Slovakia and now an MEP for the centre-right  Democratic and Christian Union.
 
The Ankara government will do its best to resist outside pressure from a club most observers believe it has long since given up trying to join. However, the motion does pressure the EU commission to pay attention to the threat posed by what the resolution described as an abuse of the “peaceful exercise of freedom of expression, through disproportionate and illegal actions and measures.”  It also called for member states to continue monitoring journalists’ trials.
 
It was “media plurality” with President Erdogan addressing the nation on FaceTime via CNN-Türk which prevent the coup plot from succeeding, reminded
Kati Piri, Dutch MEP.  With some 99 journalists arrested since that time, Turkey was now the worst offender in Europe, which added to the long list of closed publications and journalists out of work, was “not a cool list to be heading,” Piri said.
 
Piri, who is also the rapporteur for Turkey, lashed out against the practice of holding “distinguished journalists of proven integrity” without due process in pre-trial detention. “The Altan brothers, Şahin Alpay and novelist Aslı Erdoğan did not participate in the coup,” she said. Their incarceration served “no public good.” She described it as punishment purely for opinions held.”
 
“What have Sponge Bob, Square Pants or the Smurfs ever done or said that can be called a threat to society,” asked Julie Ward, the UK Labour, referring to the closure of Zarok TV, the Kurdish language cartoon channel.”
 
“Journalism is not a crime – this is today our message to Turkey, our message to President Erdogan and the whole of the Turkish parliament,” Rebecca Harms said.