IPI concerned about decision to close daily

Her Excellency Tansu Ciller
Prime Minister of Turkey
Prime Minister’s Office
Ankara
Turkey

Vienna, 18 April 1994

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI), representing over 2000 journalists and editors from leading newspapers, magazines, broadcasting organizations and news agencies in over 80 countries, is most concerned about the decision of the State Security Court to close the Istanbul daily Özgür Gündem.

IPI is informed that the highest court in the Turkish Law System has closed the paper and will not allow its publication from 16 April up to 30 April.

IPI considers the repeated suspensions and closures of newspapers to be a violation of the public’s right to freely gather and distribute information, as well as the public’s right to receive such information. We therefore strongly urge your government to suspend the closure of Özgür Gündem and to allow that paper to publish without further harassment.

I should be most grateful if you were to give this appeal your personal attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director