Following Doughty Street Chambers and Reporters Without Borders (RSF)’s first very successful event in our International Media Defence Seminars, we are pleased to invite you to our second event focusing on: 'Journalists at risk in Turkey'.
In the wake of July’s abortive coup d’état, the Turkish government has launched a witch-hunt on journalists, turning Turkey into the world’s biggest prison for journalists. Since July, the number of imprisoned journalists in Turkey quadrupled, putting the number of detained journalists at around 100, according to RSF’s recently released 2016 Worldwide Round-up report. Expressing criticism of the government or any degree of sympathy for the Gülen movement or the Kurdish political cause usually suffices for a journalist to be jailed without the justice system feeling the need to prove any involvement in criminal activities. Turkey currently also accounts for a third of the world’s detained women journalists.
This seminar on Turkey will discuss the disastrous situation in Turkey and will consider what action journalists and media defence lawyers in the United Kingdom can take to protect themselves and colleagues in their work, and to assist fellow journalists in need. The seminar will involve contributions from journalists, bloggers and activists who have been imprisoned in Turkey or subjected to other measures to stop their newsgathering and journalism.
Chair
Gill Phillips, The Guardian
Speakers
Rebecca Vincent, RSF
Yavuz Baydar, Turkish journalist in exile and co-founder of P24
Melody Patry, Index on Censorship
Jonathan Price, Doughty Street Chambers
Kirsty Brimelow QC, Doughty Street Chambers
Upcoming seminars also in this series will focus on:
- Russia (Tuesday 21 March 2017).
This is an invitation only event, if you are interested in attending please email events@doughtystreet.co.uk
