Crackdown in Turkey's Kurdish south-east turns journalists into 'terrorists'

Crackdown in Turkey's Kurdish south-east 
turns journalists into 'terrorists' 
Reporters for pro-Kurdish media are routinely detained, while those Of pro-government 

outlets cannot always write what they want 

People search their ruined houses in Cizre, south-east Turkey. Photograph: Cagdas 

Erdogan/Getty Images 

Refik Tekin, an award-winning photographer and video journalist, had been covering the 

curfew in the predominantly Kurdish city of Cizre, south-east Turkeylll, for more than a 

month when a report by a pro-government news agency turned him into a terrorist. 

Tekin accompanied a group carrying white flags that wanted to retrieve bodies and 

injured people from a nearby street when security forces suddenly opened fire, wounding 

nine and killing two, including a member of the city council. Tekin was shot in the leg but 

kept filming. 

A police officer later dragged the injured journalist along the ground to an ambulance. 

"The policeman shouted at me, telling me not to 100k at him. He said: 'You are all 

terrorists, you will see the strengths of the Turks!' This struck me as an especially strange 

thing to say. Am I not a citizen of this country?" said Tekin. 

Turkish security forces open fire on Kurds — videot21 

The state-run Anadolu agency described the incident as a clash between security forces 

and terrorists: 

"Clashes between security forces and terrorists erupted in the Cizre district of $irnak 

province. Three terrorists were neutralised and nine others wounded. There was an 

attempt to lhelp the wounded terrorists escape/ with funeral cars and ambulances 

belonging to the Cizre municipality. An alleged cameraman working for a TV channel 

was reported to be among the injured. " 

Tekin was accused Of being a member Of a terrorist organisation. The charges have since 

been dropped, but the pressure remains. 

"It gets harder and harder for journalists to keep an eye on what is happening in the 

(Kurdish regionl," said Tekin, who is still using crutches and unable to work131. "The 

government controls the narrative, barring a large part of the country from knowing what 

is going on." 

Citation: Letsch, Constanze. "Crackdown in Turkey's Kurdish south-east turns journalist into 'terrorists'." 3 May 2016. Guardian News and Media Limited. 3 May 2016. <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/03/crackdown-in-turkeys-kurdish-south-east-turns-journalists-into-terrorists>

Response: The freedom of press is a huge problem in many developing countries. Turkey is at the point where journalists have to fight to print the truth, which most countries have experienced at one point or another. This is a story of a famous journalist who is now ostracized by other Turks because he is a journalist striving to print truth for his people. Without freedom of press in a country the government loses a certain amount of accountability from its people, and it will remain that until journalists and other members of the media fight for the freedom of press.