İSTANBUL - A group of journalists have formed an initiative entitled “Haberin Var Mı” (Have You Heard) and launched a campaign on Twitter to raise concerns and publicity about the arrested journalists in Turkey: “We will not bow to anyone, we will not stay silent.”
A group of journalists have formed an initiative called "Haberin Var Mı" (Have You Heard) in response to the detention of 28 journalists and arrest of eight others in Turkey since the beginning of March.
Launching a campaign on Twitter to remind the public about the journalists behind bars and to defend people's right to information, the initiative has shared a video under the hashtag #HaberinVarMı (#HaveYouHeard).
Reminding the public that 91 journalists are currently behind bars in Turkey, the initiative has stated the following in the video:
"We will all together break down those iron gates for all imprisoned journalists, regardless of the institutions where they work and the political stances that they have maintained.
"Our loyalty is solely to the truth and to our profession, which is based on conveying the truth to the public. We will not bow to anyone. We will keep doing journalism for people's right to learn the truths. We will not keep silent."
The full statement of the initiative is as follows:
"Have you heard?
"Barış Terkoğlu, Hülya Kılınç, Barış Pehlivan from Odatv; Mehmet Ferhat Çelik, Aydın Keser from Yeni Yaşam; Murat Ağırel from Yeniçağ; Alptekin Dursunoğlu from Yakındoğu news website; Rawin Sterk from Rudaw media have been arrested.
"Have you heard?
"Eight more journalists have joined dozens of journalists in prisons. Iron gate, blind window... They have been closed to the faces of journalists again.
"Have you heard?
"We will all together break down those iron gates for all imprisoned journalists, regardless of the institutions where they work and the political stances that they have maintained! Don't forget, you cannot prevent the truths from reaching the public by arresting journalists.
"Our loyalty is solely to the truth and to our profession, which is based on conveying the truth to the public. We will not bow to anyone. We will not stay silent. We will keep doing journalism for people's right to learn the truths.
"Have you heard? Spring will come again to the mountains of the homeland!"