During Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s state visit to Germany, Reporters Without Borders Germany (RSF Germany) will hold three demonstrations in Berlin on September 27 and 28 to remind the world of the critical state of Turkey’s media and to call for the release of all journalists unjustly imprisoned in Turkey. Erdoğan will meet with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Angela Merkel, with military honours and an official state banquet also on the agenda. In preparation of his talks with Erdoğan, President Steinmeier met with representatives from RSF Germany as well as with journalists Can Dündar and Meşale Tolu who were both imprisoned in Turkey for terror charges.
“The fact that German journalists Deniz Yücel and Meşale Tolu were released from prison and allowed to return to Germany doesn’t mean things have improved for the media in Turkey in the last couple of months. Turkey is still the world’s biggest prison for professional journalists, and critical media are still being shut down”, said RSF Germany’s Executive Director Christian Mihr. “In our protests during President Erdoğan’s state visit we want to highlight that the voices of critical journalists will not fall silent even if you lock them up and ban their newspapers. This is the idea behind our new campaign ‘Fonts for Freedom’ that will be launched upon Erdoğan’s visit to Berlin.”