No promise from AKP on free press

Ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) gave no promises to change the situation of the freedom of the media in Turkey, European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) chairman Arne König said.

“You [the government] are restricting the journalists from saying what they want, you are restricting the people from accessing information they need, you are restricting individuals from saying what they want to say. This is not the way act in the free world and in democratic country” König told Hürriyet Daily News after meeting with the AKP deputy group chairman Ahmet Aydın.

Members of international press groups, including representatives from the EFJ, International Press Institute and Reporters Without Borders who attended the first hearing in the Oda TV case, met with the deputy group chairmen of the four parties in the Parliament yesterday.

Foreign journalists proposed an extra parliamentary session addressing media freedom and the possibility of instituting a monitoring body to oversee journalists and freedom of the press. Opposition parties reacted positively to these proposals, although the Daily News has learned, the AKP deputy group chairman Ahmet Aydın said he had to talk with his party on this issue.

Aydın said 59 of 63 jailed journalists are under arrest because of crimes unrelated to journalism.