DİYARBAKIR - Mezopotamya Woman Journalists Platform (MKGP) and Dicle Fırat Journalists Association (DFG) reacted to the detention of journalist Ayşe Güney and demanded her immediate release.

 

Many women were detained in house raids as part of a police operation mainly targeting the "woman activists" in Diyarbakır on Tuesday. Journalist Ayşe Güney is also among the detained, who is the editor of Jinnews, a pro-Kurdish news agency consists of women only, and the spokesperson of Mezopotamya Woman Journalists Platform. 

 

Mezopotamya Woman Journalists Platform (MKGP) and Dicle Fırat (Tigris- Euphrates) Journalists Association (DFG) reacted to the detention of journalist Ayşe Güney and demanded her immediate release with the statements they declared following her detention.

 

MKGP: JOURNALISM IS NOT A CRIME

 

In the statement of MKGP, it was noted that the pressure on the free press in Turkey has increased day by day as the journalists have been turned into targets in the political operations. "Detention of Ayşe Güney who is also the editor of the women's news agency Jinnews further proves us that women journalists are targeted. Journalism was not a crime yesterday, it is not a crime today and it will not be a crime tomorrow. We, who take over the legacy of women journalists who have written the truth, will not bow to the pressures and will never abstain from neither speaking up nor using our pen. Exposing the male-state violence, we will not step back from our principle of raising the voice of women struggling against this systematic and politicized violence, making these voices heard," MKGP stated.

 

MKGP's statement was concluded as follows: "As Mesopotamian Women Journalists Platform, we emphasize once again that we will not accept detentions and pressures against journalists who continue to struggle in order to write the facts and we state that the free press will not remain silent. We underline that we will be in solidarity with all the free press workers who continue their profession under pressure and attacks.  Journalism is not a crime! Ayşe Güney must be released immediately.”

 

DFG: WE WON'T BE INTIMIDATED

 

Dicle Fırat Journalists Association (DFG) also declared a statement that emphasizes that the government, which turned the country into a prison for journalists, continued to apply pressure on free press through screen blackouts, bans, censorship, detentions and arrests. DFG stated, "As journalists, we woke up to another day with raids and detentions. Ayşe Güney, the spokesperson for the Mesopotamian Woman Journalists Platform and editor of Jinnews, was detained in the operation targeting women in Diyarbakır. Although the address she lives and works is known and it was possible to reach her with a phone call, Güney was detained in a raid at her home at 04:30 in the morning and now kept in Diyarbakır Police Headquarters."

 

Stating that 97 journalists have been imprisoned as of July 3 in Turkey and journalists have continued to be detained based on their professional activities DFG condemned the detention of Güney and demanded her immediate release.