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14 professional press organizations gathered at the Ankara Mülkiyeliler Birliği [Association of Graduates of the Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences] building on the occasion of 10 January Working Journalists’ Day to make a statement, declaring, “We greet January 10 in solidarity”.
According to the report of Mezopotamya Agency, the joint statement was read out by the Çağdaş Gazeteciler Derneği/Progressive Journalists’ Association Chairperson Kıvanç El.
Signees of the statement: Basın Konseyi/Press Council, Çağdaş Gazeteciler Derneği/Progressive Journalists’ Association, Dicle Fırat Gazeteciler Derneği/Dicle Fırat Journalists’ Association, Diplomasi Muhabirleri Derneği/Diplomacy Reporters Association, DİSK Basın-İş/Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey-Press Workers Union, Ekonomi Muhabirleri Derneği/Economy Reporters Association, Gazeteciler Cemiyeti/Journalists’ Association, Güneydoğu Gazeteciler Cemiyeti/Journalists’ Association of the Southeast, Haber-Sen/Media, Communication and Postal Employees’ Union, İzmir Gazeteciler Cemiyeti/İzmir Journalists’ Association, Parlamento Muhabirleri Derneği/Parliamentary Reporters Association, Türkiye Gazeteciler Sendikası/Turkey Journalists’ Union.
“The profession where exploitation is least visible”
El drew attention to the fact that journalism is among professions in Turkey where both labour and exploitation are the “least visible”, adding, “For years, new regulation has kept on being introduced to revert the rights of journalists. The media is under almost complete control of the establishment, placing obstacles in the path of independent journalism. Our colleagues, working under precarious conditions and subject to whatever the boss says, face further obstacles in detentions, arrests and house arrests”.
“Journalists hold the power to get their due through solidarity”
El referred to the Constitution’s article which states, “The press is free, it cannot be censored” and emphasized how the threat of censorship has now become normal, and that in the guise of self-censorship has become an even greater threat to journalism.
El continued by saying, “As if that were not enough, tens of local newspapers have been forced to close, and news websites, newspapers and television channels broadcasting on a national scale have had to scale down”, describing January 10 as “one of the most important junctions of solidarity and the struggle for labour” for working journalists.
El went on to add:
“Today we remember the three-day struggle in 1961 given against the bosses that opposed Law No.212 that came into force on 10 January 1961, which brought our personal service and benefit rights close to what we deserve. Just like the solidarity that reached victory then, today, too, journalists possess the power to get their due.
“The spirit of January 10, respectfully commemorated today, has reemerged once again with professional press organizations coming together after a long time, and publishing the ‘Journalism Rights and Freedoms Declaration’. Our demands, voiced in this declaration, are clear. Today must become a new January 10 for hundreds of journalists working precariously, without membership of a union, for salaries below the poverty rate, and even at starvation wages, their working hours unclear.”
10 demands
EL listed the priority demands of journalists regarding working conditions as follows:
- Our working conditions must be secured, the pressure of unemployment must cease
- Our depreciation rights must be re-regulated
- Our right to termination for good cause must be implemented, in the case of resignation our severance pay must be secured
- The preparation to merge the Law on the Press with the general law on labour must be dropped
- Our monthly salary must be paid in advance, the working week must be 40 hours under legal guarantee
- Additional interest must become applicable to our unpaid overtime
- The employment of women journalists must be encouraged, dismissals on the basis of pregnancy and childbirth must be prohibited. Our postnatal paid leave and nursing period social security premium support demands must be secured via legal regulations
- Tax exemption for three years must be introduced for photojournalists’ equipment purchase
- Legal regulations must be introduced so that freelance journalists and digital media journalists can become members of unions
- Freelance journalists must have the right to obtain press cards, and benefit from personal rights related to press cards
- To overcome the problem related to workplace/company that has become an obstacle in unionization, companies with more than one workplace must be accepted as a single company, and the organization threshold must be implemented as 40%
Letters to imprisoned journalists
Following El, DİSK Basın-İş Chairperson Turgut Dedeoğlu spoke to add that they would be sending letters in solidarity to journalists in prison.
(VC/NHRD)