PRESS GROUP CONDEMNS KILLING OF TURKISH JOURNALIST
Hurriyet
Dec 22 2009
Turkey
Slain journalist Cihan Hayırsevener. AA photo
Media freedom group the International Press Institute condemned Monday
the murder of a Turkish editor-in-chief and said government criticism
of journalists encouraged such attacks.
Cihan Hayırsevener, 53, was shot Friday as he left the offices of
the Guney Marmara’da YaÅ~_am (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.
OSCE condemnation
On Tuesday, the European security body OSCE condemned on Tuesday the
killing 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."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
