Terrorist unarmed: Turkeys contribution to European media law in the 21st century

Speech in behalf of Unified European Left group on the State of the Media Freedom in Europe

We welcome the report. It is very timely and accurate. It is erected on the major binding documents of the Council of Europe and refers to indubitable facts and figures pertaining to violations of media freedom in 14 countries and thus leaves no escape for the perpetrators. Those rulers criticized in this report had not displayed even a crumb of the tolerance for investigative journalists that they had for their murderers. May the passing of this report embarrass them heavily and equip the media rights activists with greater justification in their campaign without borders for broader media freedom. Indeed all the authorities from 14 countries referred in this report bear one common characteristic: they, in spite of hypocritical exaltations of the European values vis--vis past practices of the single party dictatorships of the cold-war days, perpetuate today the same state-society relations patterns notwithstanding which camp they had belonged to then. For them there exists only one European value which is not European at all in the 21st century context: the unlimited reign of free-market capitalism and unlimited use of force for protecting the power and wealth of the new ruling classes. In their Europe there is indeed no place at all for human rights, for enlightment, for critical thought, for labor rights, for antiracism, for antifascism, for feminism, for socialism those genuinely European values for which the best personalities of this continent have sacrificed their lives. Almost one third of this report, rightly refers to violations committed against media freedom in Turkey which inhabits the largest jailed journalist population in the world. And I regret Turkeys ruling party deputies even here do not refrain from charging the victims of the violations of media freedom who are jailed under irrelevant claims, as criminals and/or terrorists. Here we are, in this new post-9/11 era the terrorist replaces the communist when it comes to stigmatize political opponents, and critics. Just yesterday a Turkish court has arrested a 21 year old newspaper journalist alongside 4 others under charges of terrorism. Terrorist unarmed, this is Turkeys contribution to European media law in the 21st century. Just have a look at the European Court of Human Rights 2012 balance sheet of applications by individuals against their states issued today. Unsurprisingly the top ten is a replica of the countries lined down in this draft resolution. Gold medal goes to Russia, Turkey catches the silver, Italy the bronze, to be followed by Ukraine, Serbia, Rumania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Poland and other 37. No need to blame journalists messieurs, your peoples are placing you at where you have reserved for yourselves. We expect that the assembly will not display any tolerance for violations of media freedom and pass this draft unanimously.