An open letter addressed to Mrs Mogherini, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy / Vice-President of the Commission, by SYRIZA MEP Stelios Kouloglou and co-signed by 34 MEPs from various political groups concerning the case of Turkish journalist Mr. Onur Erem, facing up to seven and a half years imprison if condemn. The case of Mr. Erem is just another one demonstrating the deterioration of human right protection in Turkey and especially with regard to the freedom of press.

Below the full text of the open letter:

To: Ms Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy / Vice-President of the Commission

Dear Honourable Vice-President/High-Representative,
On May 24th, 2016, the 28-year-old Turkish Journalist Mr. Onur Erem will stand trial on the grounds of “insulting” the prime minister of the Turkish state. The case has been opened against him after an interview with British writer Tariq Ali in October 2015, in which the word "joker" has been mentioned and used in the subsequent interview in reference to Prime Minister Davutoglou. More specifically, in the course of the interview Mr. Ali has expressed his opinion on specific statements of the prime minister and the interior minister by saying "This is such incoherent rubbish that I am amazed these two jokers are still in the government".

Two weeks later, on June 9th, 2016, there will be the opening trial of his second court case for “insulting” the president with a news on Google Autocomplete results. This relates to an article of Mr. Erem where he highlighted that Google Autocomplete associated the words "thief and murderer" with the words "Erdogan" and "AKP", these being well known slogans used in anti-government demonstrations. The prosecutors are demanding for a prison sentence of 7.5 years in total.

Only in the last 6 months, there are tens of journalists imprisoned, especially from Kurdish press. Between January to March 2016, 28 journalists are reported imprisoned by the Media Monitoring Report while in April they have reached 35. According to the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK) Press Labor “Journalism in our country has been passing a test that has never been this hard. The journalists going out to street to make news are being detained and arrested one by one. The biggest target of the attack against the press is the Dicle News Agency; three workers of the agency are convicted; 12 others are imprisoned. Lastly, Nedim Türfent has been arrested, and Şermin Seydan’s detention period has been extended".

Τhe European Parliament has addressed the issue of protection and promotion of human rights in Turkey on many instances and especially in the context of violation of the freedom of press, freedom of expression and freedom of thought. We request the respect of relevant international law and internationals conventions ratified by Turkey and the right to fair trial for Mr Erem.

We also request the immediate release of all journalists or other individuals detained and sentenced on the sole basis of exercising their right to freedom of expression.

With our best Regards

Stelios Kouloglou

Co-sign:
GONZALEZ PENAS Tania GUE/NGL
LAMBERT Jean The Greens
MALTESE Curzio GUE/NGL
KUNEVA Kostadinka GUE/NGL
PAPADIMOULIS Dimitrios GUE/NGL
CHRYSOGONOS Kostas GUE/NGL
SAKORAFA Sofia GUE/NGL
ALBIOL Marina GUE / NGL
PUNSET Carolina ALDE
NART Javier ALDE
SÁNCHEZ CALDENTEY María Dolores Lola GUE/NGL
TORRES Estefania GUE/NGL
BENITO Xabier GUE/NGL
URBAN Miguel GUE/NGL
ANDERSON Martina GUE/NGL
CARTHY Matt GUE/NGL
BOYLAN Lynn GUE/NGL
Liadh Ní Riada GUE/NGL
LOPEZ BERMEJO Paloma GUE/NGL
ZIMMER Gabriele GUE/NGL
MATIAS Marisa GUE/NGL
DE MASI Fabio GUE/NGL
SONNEBORN Martin NI
CHILDERS Nessa (S&D)
WARD Julie (S&D)
VERGIAT Marie-Christine GUE/NGL
VANA Monika The Greens
BENIFEI Brando (S&D)
LE HYARIC Patrick GUE/NGL
SPINELLI Barbara GUE/NGL
PIRINSKI Georgi (S&D)
MAVRIDES Costas (S&D)

24/05/16