14 Mar 2019 | Awards, News and features
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P24 (Platform for Independent Journalism) is a civil society organisation with an ambitious program to neutralise censorship in Turkey — a country in which speaking freely courts fines, arrest and lengthy jail sentences.
Turkey has become increasingly hostile to dissent in recent years. It recently replaced the emergency rule that started after the 2016 failed putsch with a presidential system in which executive powers are often unchecked. The country is the world’s largest jailer of journalists: some 183 journalists and media workers are in prison at the time of writing, including many in pre-trial detention.
But journalists are not the only ones in danger: academics, artists and ordinary Turks expressing dissent have faced legal sanctions, economic pressure, and even arrests. In a famous case, a woman was detained after being overheard criticising the Turkish president – while talking to a friend on a bus. Even some of P24’s workers have been detained, although not for their work with the organisation.
What makes P24 impressive is that it has been able to mount an ambitious programme even in such a high-risk environment, providing a glimmer of hope for civil society in Turkey. It has created a set of mutually reinforcing activities to promote free expression and fight to fill the democratic deficit.
Its legal team defends journalists and academics who are on trial because they exercised their right to free expression. P24 does its legal work on a pro bono basis, hoping to set important precedents in the Turkish legal system.
P24 also undertakes coordinated social media and public advocacy that include live-tweeting from courtrooms and campaigning through an array of websites, newsletters and exhibition spaces. One of its efforts — Expression Interrupted – is a website and newsletter tracking the progress of freedom of expression cases throughout the country.
P24 also provides safe spaces for freedom of expression. Susma24 is an outreach programme in which it brings together local bar associations and artistic communities. Through K24 and KIRAATHANE, its newly launched literature house, P24 also offers freelance opportunities and visibility to those excluded from the mainstream by the government’s ongoing stifling of dissent.
P24, one of Turkey’s most active civil society organisations secured the release of a young photographer, Cağdaş Erdoğan. While Erdoğan has been able to exhibit in Europe, no Turkish gallery wanted to show his photography – so P24 organised an exhibition in its new Literature House “KIRAATHANE”, one of its latest initiatives. In 2018, P24 also published three books on journalism, innovation and media freedom in its media library.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”104691″ img_size=”full” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2019/01/awards-2019/”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]
Index on Censorship’s Freedom of Expression Awards exist to celebrate individuals or groups who have had a significant impact fighting censorship anywhere in the world.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1552057651002-8eabcc7d-44fd-4″ taxonomies=”26925″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
8 Mar 2019 | Awards, News and features
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Released from prison on 24 February 2019, Zehra Doğan is a Kurdish painter and journalist who, during her imprisonment, was denied access to materials for her work. She painted with dyes made from crushed fruit and herbs, even blood, and used newspapers and milk cartons as canvases.
Doğan used to work in Nusaybin, a Kurdish town caught in the crossfire between Turkey and Kurdish militants. She moved to the town to report on the conflict in 2016 and edited Jinha, a feminist women-only Kurdish news agency reporting in the Kurdish language.
When she realised her reports were being ignored by mainstream media, Dogan began painting the destruction in Nusaybin and sharing it on social media, and her art became important evidence of the violence in the town.
Doğan focused on striking, dark political scenes, but also on colourful scenes of traditional Kurdish life. In her most famous artwork, she adapted a Turkish army photograph of the destruction of Nusaybin, depicting armoured vehicles devouring civilians. In July 2016, she was arrested where witnesses testified in court that she was a member of an illegal organisation.
Although her trial ended with no sentencing, Doğan remained in prison until December 2016. In March 2017, Doğan was acquitted of “illegal organisation membership” but sentenced to almost three years for “propaganda” – essentially posting her painting on social media.
Her persecution is not isolated and takes place amid a crackdown on Turkish civil society. Using emergency powers and vague anti-terrorism laws, the authorities have suspended or dismissed more than 110,000 people from public sector positions and arrested more than 60,000 people between the attempted coup of July 2016 and the end of the same year.
Together with media and academic freedom, artistic freedom has come under attack. As a result, according to the Economist: “Artists have become more cautious, as have galleries and collectors.” Doğan’s situation was noticed by many artists in the world: Banksy painted a huge mural for her in New York and Ai Wei Wei sent a letter to her.
During her time in prison Doğan continued to produce journalism and art. She collected and wrote stories about female political prisoners, reported human rights abuses, and painted despite the prison administration’s refusal to supply her with art materials.
Doğan produced her own paint from food, drinks, and even her menstrual blood. She did not have brushes but used feathers of birds that fell into the prison yard. Security guards seized and destroyed the paintings she tried to send out of prison and punished her with a ban on communications with the outside world. She also gave drawing classes to other inmates and taught them how to make their own paintbrushes.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”104691″ img_size=”full” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2019/01/awards-2019/”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]
Index on Censorship’s Freedom of Expression Awards exist to celebrate individuals or groups who have had a significant impact fighting censorship anywhere in the world.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1551975581366-1308b39d-3e20-6″ taxonomies=”26925″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
24 Feb 2019 | Awards, Awards Update, Fellowship 2019, News and features
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Artist Zehra Doğan, a Kurdish painter and journalist, has been released from a Turkish prison. Dogan, originally sentenced to two years, 9 months and 22 days on 24 March 2017, was tried over a painting depicting the destruction in the town of Nusaybin and sharing it on social media which was deemed by the courts as “terrorist propaganda”.
While in prison, Doğan, who has been nominated for a 2019 Freedom of Expression Awards in Arts, continued to write and produce art despite not having access to materials. The artist began using food and even her own blood as paint and letters, milk cartons or newspapers as her canvas. Doğan had also founded JINHA, Turkey’s first women’s news agency, which was shut down in 2016 under Statutory Decree No. 675 along with 180 other media outlets in the wake of the failed coup.
“We are very pleased to hear about her release and that she can rejoin her loved ones,” says CEO of Index on Censorship, Jodie Ginsberg. “We admire her strength and her perseverance to keep her art alive despite imprisonment and conditions. Her detention was unjust and we hope that there is justice for her and many others who continue to be arbitrarily detained in Turkey.” [/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”104529″ img_size=”full” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2019/01/awards-2019/”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]
Zehra Doğan, a Kurdish painter and journalist, has been shortlisted in the Arts category for the Index Awards 2019. Find out more.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1551005624780-09a05fdd-dde0-1″ taxonomies=”55″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
21 Feb 2019 | Awards, Campaigns -- Featured, Statements, Turkey, Turkey Statements
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Index on Censorship condemns a criminal indictment sent to a Turkish court against 16 civil society leaders including artist Meltem Arikan, actors Memet Ali Alabora and Pinar Ogun, and journalist Can Dündar.
“This farcical indictment shows how far Turkey’s government is willing to go to silence dissent and should show the world how much freedom of expression has degraded for all of the country’s citizens,” said Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of Index on Censorship.
The criminal court has 15 days to examine the indictment charging the 16 with attempting to overthrow the government for their part in the 2013 Gezi protests, the biggest anti-government demonstrations since President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Islamist government came to power in 2002. Almost six years after the protests during which tens of thousands people across Turkey took the streets, the 16 named in the indictment now faced a possible lifetime behind bars without the possibility of parole, according to a report in Ahval.
Arikan was nominated for a 2014 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award in the arts category.
The other 12 individuals named in the indictment are: Osman Kavala, Mücella Yapıcı, Tayfun Kahraman, Hakan Altınay, Gökçe Yılmaz, Can Atalay, Çiğdem Mater Utku, Hanzade Hikmet Germiyanoğlu, İnanç Ekmekçi, Mine Özerden, Yiğit Aksakoğlu, Yiğit Ali Ekmekçi.[/vc_column_text][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1550765322731-f7944837-909a-0″ taxonomies=”55″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
