WASHINGTON (Sputnik), Anastasia Levchenko — The policy and practice of the Turkish government to persecute journalists is extremely concerning and dangerous, and its repercussions are felt throughout the world, Reporters Without Borders US Director Delphine Halgand told Sputnik.
"The situation is definitely extremely concerning and dangerous and it has repercussions all over the world, because Turkey is at the center of so many crisis right now," Halgand said on Wednesday.
The United States and the European Union have repeatedly expressed concerns over the crackdown on journalists in Turkey.
The European Court of Human Rights, Halgand noted, can be a remedy of last resort, because it has the legal power to rule in cases concerning suppression of democratic rights such as in Turkey.
"I hope we will not have to go until the European Human Rights Court for each case of those who are in jail. It can have a power to release people, but it cannot change everything," Halgand added.
In November 2015, in one of the often cited cases of suppression of media freedom, the Turkish authorities arrested Can Dundar and Erdem Gul, editor and Ankara bureau chief of the Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet, respectively.
The arrests were carried out as a result of accusations by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the head of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) against Dundar and Gul, after they brought light the involvement of MIT in arms deliveries to Syria.
Can Dundar and Erdem Gul have been detained since they were arrested in November 2015, and Turkey's public prosecutors requested aggravated life sentences without possibility of parole.
