French satellite provider Eutelsat announced yesterday it is suspending Kurdish satellite station Roj TV after a Danish court last week levied a hefty fine against the satellite station for promoting terrorism. Eutelsat's decision comes despite Roj TV's appeal before the Danish High Court, which is pending. The case has implications for how media content is evaluated, the rights of minority media, and how terrorism laws are balanced with human rights.
Committee to Protect Journalists
CPJ Blog
Press Freedom News and Views
Turkey
Turkey is awash in media. The newsstands of Istanbul are buried under some 35 dailies of every format and political stripe. The airwaves are thick with TV channels and Internet penetration is tracking an economy growing at Chinese speed. Yet quantity does not equal quality. Nor does the array of titles mean diversity and freedom of expression is blossoming in a country that is seeking to join the European Union.
On January 19, 2007, Hrant Dink, the founder and editor-in-chief of the Armenian-Turkish weekly Agos, was gunned down in front of his office building in Istanbul. The murder sent shockwaves through the Turkish and international human rights and press freedom communities. It also triggered a mobilization of thousands of Turkish intellectuals, activists, and citizens that marched through the streets of Istanbul under banners claiming "We are all Hrant Dink."
Turkish
journalists are hoping a ruling next week by the European Court of Human Rights will bring justice for slain
editor Hrant Dink at least one step closer. Prosecutors
have dragged their feet in this case, which goes to the heart of the debate
over Turkish identity.
The e-mails started on July 15, 2009, and have continued ever since—pleas for help from Iranian journalists who fled their country often with little money and scarce provisions to northern Iraq, Turkey, Afghanistan, India, and a host of other locales around the world. Many lived in hiding throughout Iran for weeks or months before crossing perilous borders when it soon became apparent that their homes and country were no longer safe havens for their return.
We've launched a new section of our Web site, and we hope you
take a few minutes to read some of its pages. There is one, for example, on Russian reporter Natalya Estemirova, who dared to examine human rights crimes in
Journalists came under fire in their car on August 10 near Tskhinvali.
According to the Turkish
Daily News, Turkish journalist Recep Öztürk was wounded. It is not
clear who was shooting at them--the lines have been fluid as the Georgians and
Russians battle in South Ossetia . At least
three journalists have been killed and 10
injured since
fighting began last week.
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