Archive for July, 2011

A requiem for the free press

Sunday, July 24th, 2011

Censorship

A free press can be good or bad, but, most certainly, without freedom a press will never be anything but bad.”  Albert Camus

If we don”t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don”t believe in it at all.”  Noam Chomsky

Today is the day of celebration of commemorating act of civil disobedience carried out in the name of press freedom in 1908 in Turkey. But in recent years, too many things eroding free press have happened. 70+ journalists including investigative journalists Ahmet Şık and Nedim Şener have been in prison. (Ahmet Şık and Nedim Şener will have been in prison for 143 days).

Also, Turkey ranked 138 in Reporters Without Borders” 2010 Annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index (http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2010,1034.html)

So, today is not the day of a celebration of the free press but day of a requiem for the free press.