Dear friends,
PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO WRITE TO MP REGARDING EDM 724. You can find out who you’re MP is here: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/
A new Early Day Motion (EDM) has been tabled in Parliament entitled Media Freedom in Turkey (see below).
Turkey’s media crackdown and the disproportionate targeting of Kurdish or pro-Kurdish media has been receiving more and more attention from international NGO’s and activists. In particular, the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) recently published a damning report on Turkey’s press freedom crisis, and this week, representatives of English PEN met with President Abdullah Gul to also pressure him on this issue.
Nonetheless, over 70 journalists remain locked in prison, and mass trials to prosecute them are on-going. We must encourage our MPs in parliament to pressure the government of Turkey to release all journalists imprisoned during the course of their work.
What can you do?
Contact your MP and urge them to sign the motion! Your local MP can be found here: http://www.theyworkforyou.com and you can write to them via this website: http://www.writetothem.com/
If you have time, why not arrange to visit your MP at their constituency office and discuss it with them in person? This is often the most effective!
EDM’s are a very useful way of gathering support in Parliament. When an MP signs an EDM, they are registering their support for a specific issue. On rare occasions, when an EDM has enough signatories, it is also debated on the floor of the House of Commons. In this way, it is a mechanism to get an issue that is often overlooked discussed in Parliament.
For background information on this EDM and other Parliamentary lobbying, the BDP, the ongoing KCK trials and other news and politics from Turkey, visit: www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com
Thank you,
Peace in Kurdistan
Campaign for a political solution of the Kurdish Question
Email: estella24@tiscali.co.uk <mailto:estella24@tiscali.co.uk>
www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com
Contacts Estella Schmid 020 7586 5892 & Melanie Sirinathsingh - Tel: 020 7272 7890
Patrons: Lord Avebury, Lord Rea, Lord Dholakia, Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, Jill Evans MEP, Jean Lambert MEP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Hywel Williams MP, Elfyn Llwyd MP, John Austin, Bruce Kent, Gareth Peirce, Julie Christie, Noam Chomsky, John Berger, Edward Albee, Margaret Owen OBE, Prof Mary Davis, Mark Thomas
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EDM 724: Media Freedom In Turkey
That this House condemns the continued imprisonment of approximately 76 journalists in Turkey, the highest number in the world, on what appear to be politically motivated terror charges; expresses alarm over the arbitrary nature of these prosecutions and the lack of due process or fair treatment in the courts received by these journalists; holds deep concerns that a number of journalists in prison are on indefinite hunger strike; expresses apprehension over the deterioration in media freedom in Turkey, in particular the Kurdish media and those who are critical of government policy; and echoes the call of the European Federation of Journalists that Turkey should make urgent reforms to protect press freedom and drop charges against journalists being prosecuted under anti-terror and anti-state laws.
Sponsors: Mitchell, Austin / Clark, Katy / Corbyn, Jeremy / Lavery, Ian / McDonnell, John / Russell, Bob
http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2012-13/724
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