By Caroline Malewo, MA student, OsloMet
During the paper session titled Censorship: Speaking truth to an authoritarian power at the 8th Conference of the Safety of Journalists at OsloMet, Deniz Demir presented on how Turkish journalists defend themselves against police violence. She elaborated that Police violence against journalists on Kurdish and Independent media continues to increase and has reached its highest level now since 2013.
Journalists continue to face verbal, psychological, economic and physical violence
and the expectation of justice is shaped by the axis of recording the violence experienced. The situation makes it difficult for journalists to file complaints.
Deniz told us that although there are methods used by journalists to protect and cooperate with each other in the field, these are far from institutional methods and the reaction of journalist unions against police violence is considered weak and inadequate and in some cases discriminatory.
Deniz emphasizes on a strong need to restructure journalism unions and organize journalists around those unions against police violence. She said “Unions respond by speaking out more and taking direct action”.
Deniz concluded by saying “So we have to be in solidarity. There are those who were beaten, there are those who are in prison, we need to cooperate. As with all segments of society, only solidarity can keep journalists alive. Solidarity of institutions, solidarity of individuals with each other.”