Journalists Will Be Freed

https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/03/23/european-court-rulings-free-2-turkish-journalistsImage: none because perhaps other journalists were afraid to take pictures seeing that these two were arrested for no reason in Turkey. According to the Human Rights Watch in an article titled, European Court: Rulings to Free 2 Turkish Journalists Urgent to Carry Out Judgment, Groups Say, a ruling was made recently by a higher court to enable the release of two Turkish journalists. These two Turkish journalists by the names of Mehmet Altan and Şahin Alpay, got falsely charged and put behind bars in Turkey. The court ruled with the helpings of many non-government based organizations that proved that these two journalists were not criminals. The basis of why these two were released is mainly because journalism is not considered to be a crime. These two brave journalists were just conducting their jobs, both didn’t even cause any harm. In the end the court declared that the charges that were put on the journalists Altan and Alpay were false (based on intensive coverage perhaps that the Turkish government didn’t prefer). The court ruled that expression of opinions even if against the government should be permitted and one should not be jailed due to this very reason. In the future due to these court rulings and the release of the journalists, perhaps other innocently charged journalists will be freed. “While acknowledging the threat posed to Turkey by the attempted coup, the court crucially noted that “the existence of a ‘public emergency threatening the life of the nation’ must not serve as a pretext for limiting freedom of political debate, which is at the very core of the concept of a democratic society”(Human Rights Watch, 2018). [1 image, 1 link, 1 quotation, and 254 words]