The International Press Institute (IPI) named South African editor and publisher Raymond Louw a World Press Freedom Hero earlier this year in recognition of his long-time struggle for press freedom and journalists’ rights.
Louw – the editor and publisher of the private circulation current affairs weekly Southern Africa Report until early 2011, when he sold the publication – last weekend wrote to Turkish President Abdullah Gül calling for the release of Nedim Şener, Louw’s fellow IPI World Press Freedom Hero. Şener has been imprisoned since early March in connection with allegations that he is part of a group that supported a coup to overthrow the government led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The full text of Louw’s letter appears below.
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November 26, 2011
President Abdullah Gül
General Secretariat of the Presidency
06689 Çankaya, Ankara
Turkey
[email protected]
Cc: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Vekaletler Caddesi Başbakanlık Merkez Bina
06573 Kızılay, Ankara
Turkey
[email protected]
Dear Mr. President,
I write to you as a South African journalist to express my horror and shock at the imprisonment of Nedim Şener, a Turkish journalist who has been in prison for more than 250 days on charges which many regard as spurious and without foundation. I also appeal to you to release him.
It appears that the Turkish authorities appear to have difficulty in justifying the charges in court because Mr. Şener has not been brought to trial. Fellow journalists and I in South Africa have a history of opposing detention without trial and other acts such as assaults and assassination of journalists for trying to report on events in this country. To us Mr. Şener’s incarceration is the same treatment as South Africa experienced. We regard Mr. Şener’s imprisonment as a form of extra-judicial punishment which has no place in a country which professes to be a democracy and which is applying for membership of the European Union, a gathering of democratic states.
As a member of the United Nations, Turkey subscribes to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19 of which enjoins the protection of journalists to carry out their role of reporting the truth and informing the public. The conduct by the Turkish authorities in dealing with Mr. Şener is a brutal breach of that protocol.
I have travelled in Turkey and admired its people and the many places of interest. I believe that the action taken against Mr. Şener detracts from your country’s status and is a slur on your people.
Again, I call on you to release Mr. Şener or bring him to trial.
While I have concentrated my comments on the detention of Mr. Şener I am aware that there are many other journalists imprisoned for a variety of reasons in Turkey. I appeal to you to release Mr. Şener first and then give special attention to the remaining imprisoned journalists so that they, too, are released as speedily as possible.
Yours sincerely,
Raymond Louw
