Statement from the TGC regarding the March 31 local elections: 'Take precautions to prevent internet outages'

Pointing to the importance of the local elections taking place in an atmosphere of a democratic celebration, the Board of Directors of the Journalists Association of Turkey stated in its announcement, "Our colleagues must be able to report election results in a transparent environment, and there should be no verbal or physical obstruction of journalists. Precautions must be taken against internet outages."

The statement included the following expressions:

INFRASTRUCTURE PROBLEMS MUST BE RESOLVED

"It is of great importance for the public interest that journalists can perform their duties comfortably during the election, where citizens will express their will for democracy. First and foremost, we expect infrastructure problems to be resolved in advance to ensure there are no internet outages.

The life and work safety of our colleagues working in national and local media must be ensured while they report election results, and verbal and physical interference must be prevented.

Journalists working for media organizations with different political views must be able to access election results in a transparent manner.

It should not be forgotten that preventing the monitoring of the election by demanding press cards or implementing accreditation is a crime. Journalists should be able to monitor the election with the ID cards of the institutions they work for or the cards of the professional organizations they are members of.

We hope that the local elections, for which we expect all measures to be taken to ensure there are no interruptions in the broadcast flow of institutions reporting election results, will take place in an atmosphere of a democratic celebration."