Joint statement from 14 press organizations: The press cannot be censored!

Journalism professional organizations issued a joint press statement on January 10, Working Journalists Day. 

The statement said, “Today, despite all the difficult conditions, our profession is still standing. This is thanks to our journalist colleagues who defend the public's right to receive information and who protect their profession. We have full faith that we will no longer celebrate January 10s with concepts such as insecurity, obstruction, censorship, self-censorship, detention, arrest, and poverty, but with the rights and freedoms we will achieve through our struggle.”

14 journalism professional organizations, including the European Federation of Journalists, the Press Council, the Progressive Journalists Association, the Diplomacy Correspondents Association, DISK Basın-İş, Dicle Fırat Journalists Association, the Economy Correspondents Association, the Journalists Association, the Southeast Journalists Association, Haber-Sen, the İzmir Journalists Association, the Parliamentary Correspondents Association, the Turkey Photojournalists Association, and the Journalists Union of Turkey, issued a joint statement on January 10, Working Journalists Day.

The press statement, held at the Mülkiyeliler Birliği, was read by Kıvanç El, President of the Progressive Journalists Association. Stating, “We will increase our solidarity for our demands in order to celebrate the anniversary of the adoption of our Labor Law like a holiday,” El said that journalism is among the professions in Turkey where labor is intensive and exploitation is most invisible. The joint statement, which also included demands for improvements regarding the working conditions of journalists, included the following expressions:

"For years, regulations that set back the rights of journalists have been implemented in our country, the media has been completely brought under control, obstacles have been placed in the way of independent journalism, and our colleagues, who work in insecure conditions and at the mercy of their bosses, face obstacles such as detentions, arrests, and house arrests.

'JOURNALISTS HAVE THE POWER TO OBTAIN THEIR RIGHTS THROUGH SOLIDARITY'

In days when the constitutional provision that ‘The press is free and cannot be censored’ remains merely on paper, the threat of censorship has become normalized, and much more severe processes such as self-censorship have begun to threaten our profession. As if this were not enough, dozens of local newspapers have closed, and news sites, newspapers, and television channels broadcasting on a national scale have gone down the path of downsizing one by one. For journalists who have been working under these conditions for decades, January 10 is one of the most important milestones of journalists' solidarity and labor struggle. Just as the three-day struggle waged in 1961 against the bosses who opposed Law No. 212, which came into effect on January 10, 1961, and the solidarity displayed then achieved success, today journalists have the power to obtain their rights through solidarity.

The spirit of January 10, which we commemorate with respect, has once again emerged today with press professional organizations coming together at this level after a long time and creating the Declaration of Journalistic Rights and Freedoms text. Our demands that we express with this declaration are clear. For hundreds of journalists working without a union, without security, for wages below the poverty and even hunger line, and with uncertain working hours, today must be a new January 10.

Today, despite all the difficult conditions, our profession is still standing. This is thanks to our journalist colleagues who defend the public's right to receive information and who protect their profession. The prescription for January 10, Working Journalists Day, to be celebrated as a holiday rather than a day of struggle is clear. As press professional organizations, it is time to increase our solidarity and grow our struggle for press and expression freedom in every field.

In our day, when journalism is squeezed by politics and capital, we can only overcome the threats to freedom of expression and our personal rights today, as we did yesterday, by organizing and through solidarity. We have full faith that we will no longer celebrate January 10s with concepts such as insecurity, obstruction, censorship, self-censorship, detention, arrest, and poverty, but with the rights and freedoms we will achieve through our struggle.”