The head of a union representing Turkish journalists has ended a hunger strike he began last week to protest alleged efforts by management of a state-run news agency to pressure employees to quit the union.

Turkish Union of Journalists (TGS) President Ercan Ipekçi said Wednesday that he was ready and willing to continue the hunger strike he began last Friday in front of the headquarters of the Anadolu News Agency in Ankara, but was ending it at the urging of union members.

Ipekçi said last week that new, government-appointed management of the agency, where he is employed, had placed severe pressure on him and his fellow employees to leave the union, in some cases successfully.  According to news reports, employees who declined to leave the union were being fired or forced into retirement.

In a statement provided to the International Press Institute (IPI), the TGS called on the Anadolu News Agency to end the reported pressure tactics, formalise working conditions for journalists and allow reporters to become union members. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), with which the TGS is affiliated, also reported that Ipekçi personally “has been singled out by management as a target in a campaign of intimidation intended to undermine support for the union”.

Ferai Tinc, a member of IPI’s Executive Board and president of IPI’s Turkish National Committee, said the reported actions of the Anadolu News Agency constituted a violation of press freedom.

“We ask that [the alleged pressure]…be stopped and that the justified requests of Anadolu Agency employees be fulfilled,” she said. “We also ask that the freedom of union, an important indicator of democracy, not be harmed.”

IPI Press Freedom Manager Anthony Mills added:

“The pressure reportedly being placed on TGS members at the Anadolu Agency is just the latest development in an increasingly worrying trend in Turkey, where media seem to be becoming less free to do their job with each passing day. We urge management at the agency to respect the fundamental right of employees to unionize and to refrain from punishing employees who seek to exercise that right.”

In a speech last week, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan took a thinly-veiled swipe at the union, disputing the group’s contention that more than 100 journalists are in jail in Turkey and renewing accusations that many of those in custody are linked to terrorism.