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Jailed journalists a sign of declining press freedom in Turkey
Turkey is often held up in the U.S. and Europe as a model of how democracy can work in a Muslim country. But activists say press freedom continues to erode.
Reporting from Istanbul, Turkey—One ofTurkey’sbest known publishers and human rights activists is sitting in prison — again — waiting for a court case that appears to be at a virtual standstill. He is far from alone.
Ragip Zarakolu was arrested in October along with dozens of other people suspected of having links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, also known as the PKK.
While he sits in a high-security prison in northwest Turkey, dozens more journalists are in jail around the country on orders of the nation’s judicial system. Some say the number of those incarcerated is as high as 100.
“Everything is proceeding in an exceedingly Kafkaesque manner since the start,” Zarakolu, 63, wrote in a letter to the Hurriyet Daily News in late December. “If lies pass as the truth, and denials have replaced apologies, then everything is rotten.”
Pictured: Demonstrators in Istanbul hold placards last month while marking the fifth anniversary of the assassination of ethnic Armenian Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, who was killed by an ultranationalist. (Mustafa Ozer, AFP/Getty Images / February 18, 2012)
