NEWS CENTER  – What hurts us more about journalists who were prevented from following the trial of the slain Diyarbakır Bar Association President Tahir Elçi because they are not 'accredited' was not the fact that the decision taken by the court but our 'accredited' colleagues who went through that door remaining silent to the fact that we would be standing outside that door.

 

Turkey Journalists 'Rights and Responsibilities Declaration which was modeled from Latin American countries was approved by the Turkey Journalists Society (TGC) on March 31, 2000. An article was added to the declaration, which was accepted as an annex to the statute in 2005 and updated in 2019: “The journalist should refrain from harming another journalist consciously and openly, even because of competition. It should not behave in a way that prevents and mislead a colleague's publication. The journalist should be in solidarity with colleagues who are in trouble for professional reasons. "

 

Well, in Turkey where 74 journalists are behind bars and judiciary is hanging over hundreds of them like the sword of Damocles, is this principle a coin of the realm?

 

Let's examine the answer to this question with the closest example, the hearing about the murder of Diyarbakır Bar Association President Tahir Elçi yesterday, and what the journalists did there.

 

Five years after the murder, employees of  media institutions other than AA, DHA, İHA and Habertürk were not allowed in the courtroom at the Diyarbakır 10th High Criminal Court, in line with the decision taken by the court board. Moreover, although they are at the heart of this trial with footage of the incident that will make a significant contribution to enlightening the murder committed under conditions where even the bullet that entered Tahir Elçi's neck could not be found. 

 

The number of police per square meter in front of the courthouse, its surroundings and inside the courthouse before the trial where 4 defendants were tried, 3 of whom were police officers, were beyond any measures against Coronavirus. This situation, which resembles movie scenes for our colleagues who came from other cities to follow the trial, was compared with many examples from the far-near period in the conversations between journalists and lawyers working in the city. It was almost the time for the hearing to start when a police officer approached a colleague coming from İstanbul and asked him for a list of journalists who will follow the hearing. We made a list of journalists and gave it to the same police officer. When the door of the court room was open, the first ones that went through that door was riot police with shields in their hands.

 

Cihan Aydın, the President of Diyarbakır Bar Association, who appears behind them, announced that 84 people, 20 of them police officers, will be allowed in the court room in line with the decision taken by the court board. Although we were briefly relaxed when we heard that journalists wasn't included in that number, we are informed that the journalists on the list we have given will not be allowed in the room a few minutes later. When we asked why, they told us only the 'accredited' journalists will be allowed in the courtroom.

 

Despite all our objections and the contact of the Bar executives with the delegation, the court presiden did not retreat from his Hammurabi law decision.

 

After a while, only the representatives of AA, İHA, DHA and Haber Türk from accredited press institutions looked in our eyes and entered the hall with swift steps. What hurts us more about journalists who were prevented from following the trial of the slain Diyarbakır Bar Association President Tahir Elçi because they are not 'accredited' was not the fact that the decision taken by the court but our 'accredited' colleagues who went through that door remaining silent to the fact that we would be standing outside that door.

 

The fact that two of the four accredited media representatives are the president and director of the Southeastern Journalists Association (GGC) is the cream on top. Think about it. You realize that your colleagues are in line with the judiciary that tells you you can not see things in their perspective in a murder trial that must be open to public. The ones with accreditation will go through that door to the stage and you will remain behind the door. And on the World Journalists Day, which is only words in Turkey.

 

PROFESSIONAL THRESHOLD

 

Being unresponsive to the fact that your colleagues are seperated from you in a murder trial that has to be seen publicly, and as the executives of a professional organization was to say the least, not elegant at all. If you are concerned that you will also not be allowed in the courtroom if you react, let those who have the responsibility of shedding a light on the murder of a lawyer in the name of the society be concerned. Otherwise in the circumstances where the profession itself is targeted and restricted, those who act with the lust for competition becomes the limit of the journalistic ID cards.

 

 

MA / Ömer Çelik