18.04.1996

Defend press freedom in Turkey

Evrensel, a daily working class newspaper, has been ordered to close down for a month by the Turkish authorities. The charge is “promoting one class over another”, an offence under Turkish state law. Arguing for the improvement of working and living conditions can be deemed as breaching this law.

In January this year, Evrensel correspondent Metin Goktepe was beaten to death by police. Forty thousand workers demonstrated in Istanbul.

The Turkish government targets the paper because it consistently speaks out for workers and the oppressed Kurdish people, and is not afraid to criticise those in power. The Turkish government’s attacks on it are part of its offensive against all democratic organisations - trade unions, political parties and the press generally.

Evrensel calls on all democratic organisations and individuals and the press internationally to defend its right to publish by expressing solidarity with it and faxing protests as a matter of urgency to the Turkish government.

Helen Eilis