H. E. Tansu Ciller
Prime Minister of Turkey
Prime Minister’s Office
Ankara
Turkey

Vienna, 6 April 1995

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI), strongly condemns the seizure by Turkish authorities of videotapes belonging to two freelance journalists working for YLE, the Finnish broadcasting Company.

IPI is informed that Turkish security forces confiscated the eight Betacam-videocassettes on Tuesday, 4 April 1995, as the journalists who shot the footage, Ms. Leena Reikko and Mr. Tom Kankkonen, were about to board a plane in Istanbul. We understand the two journalists were detained for several hours on Wednesday, 5 April, after they went to the military police in Diyarbakir to ask for the return of their tapes. The journalists were released later the same day, but their films, containing scenes of civilians killed by the Turkish army in northern Iraq, were not returned.

IPI, a global network of editors and media executives from newspapers, magazines, broadcasting organisations and news agencies in 85 countries, believes that the confiscation of the videotapes by the Turkish authorities is a gross violation of the right to “seek, receive and impart information through any media and regardless of frontiers,” as proclaimed in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We therefore strongly urge Your Excellency to ensure that the videotapes are returned to the Finnish Broadcasting Company without delay. We further urge that journalists working in Turkey are allowed to carry out their work without further harassment.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director