Parisian street artist, RSF paint portraits of jailed Turkish journalists outside Euro court

STRASBOURG

AFP photo

Members of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Parisian street artist C215 painted the portraits of 10 imprisoned Turkish journalists outside the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on May 29, urging the court to intercede on behalf of journalists detained in the country.

“C215, whose real name is Christian Guémy, used stencils to paint the portraits of Murat Aksoy, Şahin Alpay, Ahmet Altan, Kadri Gürsel, Nazlı Ilıcak, Musa Kart, İnan Kızılkaya, Tunca Öğreten, Ayşenur Parıldak and Ahmet Şık outside the court. They have been held for between five and 10 months. Two of them are more than 70 years old,” a statement by RSF read.

The group also held a banner with the hashtag #SaveTurkishJournalists to show solidarity with the journalists.

“Our presence here is an appeal for help,” RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire said. 

“Scores of media professionals, who include some of the most famous names in Turkish journalism, have been languishing in prison for months just for doing their job. President Erdoğan’s draconian policies and arbitrary measures under the state of emergency have trampled on their rights. In the face of this denial of justice, all hope rests with the ECHR,” he said.

“We respectfully appeal to the judges to examine the cases of these journalists as quickly as possible. This is an emergency. What these prisoners and their families are experiencing is tragic. They have been attacked economically and psychologically,” said Erol Önderoğlu, the press freedom group’s Turkey representative.

The ECHR announced that it was examining some 15 cases as a matter of priority, including that of arrested Die Welt journalist Deniz Yücel, but it has yet to issue any ruling.

The event marked the end of three days of a campaign by RSF and C215 in support of imprisoned journalists.

C215 had used stencils to reproduce the 10 portraits of the journalists across the Parisian urban landscape on May 27 and 28.

Turkey is currently ranked 155th out of 180 countries according to RSF’s 2017 World Press Freedom Index after falling four places from the previous year.