DİYARBAKIR - DFG Co-Chair Dicle Müftüoğlu, who made a statement in front of the courthouse regarding the journalists who are still giving their statements to the prosecutor, said, "You will not be able to silence the free press which you could not silence with massacres."

 

Dicle Fırat Journalists Association (DFG) and Mesopotamia Women Journalists Platform (MKGP) made a statement in front of the courthouse regarding 22 people, 20 of whom are journalists, who were detained in Diyarbakır eight days ago. Colleagues of journalists, their families, NGOs and political party representatives participated in the press statement made in front of the Diyarbakır Courthouse.

 

In the press release which the journalists were holding a huge banner, written, 'We will not be silenced', Xwebûn Newspaper Publisher Kadri Esen and DFG Co-chairman Dicle Müftüoğlu underlined that the free press will not submit to oppression and it never did so far, demanded the release of the journalists.

 

ESEN: WE WILL NOT BOW DOWN

 

Underlining that the journalists were detained for simply doing their jobs and even though it is still not known why the journalists were detained, the aim of the detention was an attack at the Kurdish language, Xwebûn Newspaper Publisher Kadri Esen said: "They tell us to conceal the truth from the people. We don't. We will continue to convey the things people go through in Kurdistan. They want to silence the Kurdish press. These operations against us are neither the first nor the last."

 

MÜFTÜOĞLU: SOLIDARITY MUST GROW

 

DFG Co-Chair Müftüoğlu stated that they were in front of the courthouse to put an end to the 8-day unlawfulness, and said, "Our friends were targeted because they did their jobs and conveyed the truth to the public. For this reason, their homes and workplaces were raided. The blockade ans search in and in front of the production companies for 8 days clearly shows why our friends were detained."

 

'YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SILENCE THE FREE PRESS'

 

Müftüoğlu continued: “With these operations, the following message was conveyed to the journalists: 'If you convey the truth to the public, we will criminalise you and make you a target'. You will not be able to silence the free press, which you could not silence with bombings, forced disappearances and massacres."

 

Müftüoğlu thanked everyone who was in solidarity and repeated her call to increase solidarity.

 

The statement ended with the slogan "The free press cannot be silenced".