On January 5, 2016 Mohammed Rasool, a journalist who was arrested and jailed in Turkey in August last year, has been freed after spending 131 days in detention. But 30 more journalists spend New Year’s Eve in prison and still are in jail.
Rasool, a freelance journalist for Vice News, was arrested in the town of Diyarbakir in the south east of the country along with two other journalists, Philip Pendlebury and Jake Hanrahan, on 27 August 2015, while the three were reporting on clashes between police and Kurdish separatist groups.
Pendlebury and Hanrahan were freed 11 days after their arrest, but Rasool remained in detention, never facing indictment for the terrorism offences he was accused of, which Vice called “baseless and alarmingly false.”
However, as confirmed by Vice News, Rasool has now been released, bringing the number of imprisoned journalists in Turkey down to 13, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
In a statement, Vice News confirmed Rasool’s release, saying: “Vice News is pleased to confirm its reporter, Mohammed Rasool has been released on bail having been held in a Turkish prison for 131 days.”
Turkey has clamped down on press freedom in recent years, with journalists who write stories critical of the government often facing intimidation, arrest and even detention.
Since Rasool’s arrest, Vice has been leading a campaign for his release – in October last year, all of the media network’s websites around the world were shut down in a two-hour ‘blackout’, intended to draw attention to Rasool’s plight.
A petition set up by the Committee to Protect Journalists, which called on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to free Rasool, also gained around 90,000 signatures after being set up shortly after his detention.
With their affiliates in Turkey, the EFJ and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) are following closely the cases of imprisoned journalists. According to their reports there are still 3o unlawfully imprisoned journalists in Turkey. All of them are in prison just for having done their job.
We will not forget them…
Turkey (follow the IFJ/EFJ campaign “Set journalists free in Turkey”)
- Ali Konar, May 27, 2010
- Beritan Canözer, December 19, 2015
- Can Dündar, November 27, 2015
- Deniz Babir, December 15, 2015
- Erdal Süsem, February 1, 2010
- Erdem Gül, November 27, 2015
- Erol Zavar, January 20, 2007
- Özgür Amed, February 23, 2015
- Ferhat Çiftçi, February 16, 2011
- Gurbet Çakar,
- Gültekin Avcı, September 20, 2015
- Hamit Dilbahar, February 13, 2010
- Hatice Duman, April 1, 2003
- Hidayet Karaca, December 19, 2014
- İdris Yılmaz, November 14, 2015
- Kamuran Sunbat,
- Kenan Karavil, December 11, 2009
- Mesut Aslan,
- Mehmet Baransu, March 2, 2015
- Mikail Barut, August 29, 2012
- Miktat Algül, May 17, 2010
- Muhammed İsmail Rasool, August 27, 2015
- Mustafa Gök, February 1, 2004
- Nuri Yeşil, May 27, 2010
- Sami Tunca, September 17, 2013
- Seyithan Akyüz, December 11, 2009
- Şahabettin Demir, May 9, 2010
- Tahsin Sağaltıcı, June 5, 2015
- Yılmaz Kahraman
- Zeki Karakuş
The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) strongly calls for release of them.
Ataturk heritage today 