Reporters Without Borders Condemns Turkish Police Violence Against Six
Journalists
Reporters Without Borders
April 2, 2008
Reporters Without Borders condemns Turkish police violence against six
journalists during a demonstration linked to the Kurdish New Year celebrations
on 23 March in the far southeast city of Hakkari. They were punched and kicked
and their film and videotape was seized. One of them, Senar Yildiz of the news
agency Ihlas and the news website Yüksekova Haber (www.yuksekovahaber.com), was
hospitalised with a head injury.
“We call on the local and national authorities to identify and punish those
responsible,” the press freedom organisation said. “The security forces should
act with judgment and restraint. Journalists should not be treated like
criminals.”
Yildiz and the five other journalists - Hamit Erkut and Erkan Cobanoglu of the
privately-owned news agency Dogan, Necip Capraz of the news agency Anatolia,
Sevket Yilmaz of the news agency Cihan and Sami Yilmaz of DIHA - were in Hakkari
to cover a pro-Kurdish demonstration held the day after the Kurdish New Year
celebration Newroz.
Capraz said the journalists were targeted when the police dispersed the
demonstration. At first, they were charged by a lone police officer. Then other
policemen followed suit, hitting them and seizing their material.
“All we did wrong was to be journalists and from Yüksekova,” Capraz said. The
nearby district of Yüksekova was the scene of violent clashes between Kurds and
Turkish anti-riot police in 2006.
Meanwhile, DIHA reporter Behçet Dalmaz said police were abusive and threw his
press card in his face during an identity check on 18 March in Hakkari, where he
had gone for the Martyrs Commemoration, an official ceremony marking a
Franco-British offensive against Turkey in 1915, during the First World War.
