The issue of jailed journalists

First of all, let us state that this is in no way a matter that can be defended. Whatever his ideas, if a journalist or a man of ideas or any person is subjected to prosecution, arrested or put on trial in a country because of what he wrote, this is a disgrace and a pity for that country. There is no point in bringing democratic standards or criteria into it at all. It is a disgrace even for a society that is not called democratic; it is a sign of primitiveness, despotism and oppression. That no one in Turkey can any longer defend its rightfulness is thanks to the atmosphere of law and freedom produced by the reforms of the last 11 years prevailing.

However obvious this is, a person who commits a crime also being a journalist, or also being a thinker, or also being an academic, does not turn his crime into a crime of thought. If the crime he committed is one requiring arrest, no one can look at his arrest as "the arrest of a journalist."

Those who look at it that way are either accomplices in that crime or are after organizing another crime.

There are many reasons for us to think that the accusation of "jailed journalists" against Turkey on freedom of thought, which also found a place in the Freedom House report, is the product of the meticulous work of an organized crime network.

According to the latest figures, Turkey, a country in which 44 journalists are jailed, is being promoted as the country with the most jailed journalists and therefore the one where freedom of thought is under the most pressure. For someone who witnesses how freely journalists work in Turkey, and that every day tons of criticism, even insults, about the prime minister and Erdoğan are not even subject to any legal proceedings, this is of course very hard to believe. But beyond this incredible distortion of reality, it is not at all hard to test the objective counterpart of the claims with numbers. Let us do so, if you like.

First of all, the Ministry of Justice has no such classified record concerning convicts and detainees. The lists on jailed journalists are formed from the claims of certain organizations. And those organizations circulate a list containing names that appear in none of the Ministry of Justice's records as journalists.

When the Ministry of Justice conducted an examination on the basis of these lists, it found that 15 people had long since been released, that out of the whole list only 6 people held a yellow press card, and that of these, three were detained while the other three had been convicted for activities constituting non-journalistic crimes they had committed. That is, those who produced the list, while generously handing everyone a journalist card, did not even bother to update the list they produced.

So what kinds of crimes did those on this list commit? Let us, if you like, take a look at the list of crimes too:

For example, the person named H. D., said to be a journalist, indeed said to be detained because he is a journalist;

- Acting on behalf of the MLKP terrorist organization and keeping firearms of various calibers in the safe house where he stayed together with a person named A.A.,

- Forgery of an official document (using a forged identity document issued in someone else's name),

- Placing explosives at Kalamış Marina in the Kızıltoprak neighborhood of Kadıköy district on 31 July 2001,

- The armed robbery of the Akbank Topçular Branch located in the Rami Kuru Grocery Wholesalers' Complex in Eyüp district on 24 January 2003,

- The plundering of the weapons belonging to two persons named A.K. and H.K. in the Cevizli neighborhood of Maltepe district on 17.03.2003,

And there is a person named M. G.; his criminal file is as follows:

- Being a member of the DHKP-C organization,

- Forgery of an official document (using a forged identity document issued in someone else's name),

- The armed robbery of the Akbank Eyüp Branch on 2 April 1992,

- The killing of police officer Bülent Ustun and a night watchman on 18 February 1992,

- The bombing of the Kartal Tekel sales depot on 18 June 1992,

- The bombing of the ANAP Pendik district building on 16 October 1991,

- Armed clashes, wounding and killing acts against four police officers on 5 April 1992,

- The bombing of a helicopter in Ataköy on 27 March 1991,

- The bombing of the Alibeyköy Police Station on 7 April 1992,

- The armed attack on the Atışalanı Squad Command on 19 April 1992,

And what are we to say about E. S.?

- Being a member of the TKPML-TİKO PKK terrorist organization,

- Opening fire with a gun on teams of the Kartal District Police Directorate on 21 March 2000,

- Wounding a casino owner named H.B. with a gun and extorting protection money on behalf of the organization,

The list goes on like this. There is murder on the list, there is robbery, there is rape, there is terrorism, there is theft. Does one look at whether a person who commits any of these crimes is a journalist or from some other profession? Suppose it was looked at: would his being a journalist, or say from a more respectable profession, require ignoring these matched crimes?

Moreover, note that when these convicted detainees committed the alleged crimes and were arrested, the AK Parti had not even been founded. Furthermore, the criminal file of none of the other persons said to be journalists is any different from this.

Of course, whether these criminals were tried fairly enough can be debated, but bringing up the journalism of those on this list means nothing other than being a partner in these crimes or intending to organize another crime.

In fact, the steps taken on freedom of thought and expression over the last ten years are the best witness to how much distortion all the claims about jailed journalists subject the picture of Turkey to.

Let me just say, and be content: whoever takes these falsifiers, who misread or have others misread Turkey, as a guide will have the bridge of his nose smashed to pieces.