Pullman condemns seizure of Turkish newspaper

Authors including Philip Pullman and Tom Holland, and journalists from Buzzfeed, GQ and the Mirror have joined Index on Censorship magazine to condemn the seizure of Turkish independent media group, Zaman, and its English-language newspaper Today's Zaman.

On Friday (4th March), a court ruled that Istanbul-based newspaper Today's Zaman, should immediately be put under the control of the state. Police then raided Zaman's offices and fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters who demanded the paper should remain independent, the Independent reported.

A statement made by Today's Zaman on Friday just before the takeover, said: “We are going through the darkest and gloomiest days in terms of freedom of the press”.

The move is "the latest in a spate of attacks on the free press by the government, which has arrested and detained scores of journalists over the past 12 months", Index on Censorship said.

The petition started by Index on Censorship asks the Turkish court to reverse its decision to seize Zaman and urges the international community to "speak out against Turkey's repeated attempts to stifle a free and independent media".

With the Europan Union is holding talks with Turkey today (7th March) on the migration crisis, Index editor Rachael Jolley told The Bookseller: "It is vital that this contempt for the freedom of the press that has been ramped up in the past few months, culminating in the seizure of one of the few newspapers that was critical of the current government's policies, should not be ignored as part of the discussions."

Index c.e.o. Jodie Ginsberg added: “With this move, Turkey has hit a new low for media freedom. We now need the international community to help pull it back from the brink by encouraging governments to speak out publicly against these actions instead of turning a blind eye to president Erdogan’s creeping authoritarianism.”

Historian and author Tom Holland added: “That the rich and argumentative journalistic culture of Turkey should come to this. The free airing of opinions is a mark, not of Turkish weakness, but of Turkish strength”.

The www.change.org/p/president-recep-tayyip-erdogan-condemn-turkey-s-crackdown-on-press-freedom">petition currently has 2,141 signatures.