OSCE CONDEMNED MURDER OF A TURKISH EDITOR-IN-CHIEF AND CALLED ON ANKARA TO DO MORE TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS’ LIVES

PanARMENIAN.Net
23.12.2009 18:52 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe on Tuesday condemned the murder of a Turkish editor-in-chief and
called on the government in Ankara to do more to protect journalists’
lives.

"I am deeply disturbed by this cowardly attack against a journalist
who was doing his job by trying to expose wrongdoing," the OSCE’s
representative on freedom of the media, Miklos Haraszti, said in a
statement. "Turkey has to send a strong signal so that journalists
can exercise their duty without fear for their lives and well-being."

Also on Tuesday, the International Press Institute, a media freedom
group, condemned Monday the murder of a Turkish editor-in-chief and
said government criticism of journalists encouraged such attacks.

Cihan Hayirsevener, 53, was shot Friday as he left the offices of
the Guney Marmara’da Yasam (Life in Southern Marmara) newspaper in
the western town of Bandırma. He died later in the hospital.

He had been investigating a local corruption scandal and had received
death threats, the Vienna-based International Press Institute said
in a statement.

It called on Turkish authorities to arrest the killers as soon as
possible "because people who want to silence journalists should not
be encouraged by too lengthy a trial."

"We think that the climate enforced by the authorities when attacking
and criticizing the media with very harsh words encourages the
perpetrators of such acts," said IPI, which has previously raised
concern about media freedom in Turkey.

Eighty journalists have been killed so far this year because of
their profession, according to an IPI "death watch" that does not
include Friday’s murder. Sixty-six were killed in 2008, it says,
Asbarez.com reported.