In Turkey, many foreign countries have correspondents in this year, no new accreditation. The Turkish government called as a basic “bureaucratic problems”. Reporters without borders sees this as an attempt “to independent foreign reporting in Turkey limit”. the
to feel The freedom of the press is for Turkey has Long been a sensitive issue, so far, the mainly Turkish journalists were given. Foreign correspondents have to renew each year, their accreditation, a process that is no longer running this year, now all of a sudden smoothly. Many reporters inside and reporters have also received two months after the expiry of their old press cards are not new, including more than a dozen German. On Thursday, the Süddeutsche Zeitung, ZDF, daily mirror and the radio, the ARD has not been approved, therefore, to report on an economic summit of Turkey and the EU in Istanbul.
EU-Vice-President of the Commission Jyrki Katainen said in the summit press conference that he had heard that some European journalists could not participate in this event. “I am very sorry,” said Katainen. He would ask the Turkish authorities to solve the Problem. The Turkish channel NTV broadcast a press conference with Katainen and the Turkish Minister of Finance, Berat Albayrak live. Albayrak also said in the United States and in the EU, the press accreditations have to be periodically renewed, which is a normal process. Some of the cards would be renewed, others do not, according to the legal framework.
the end of March are important local elections in Turkey
Behind the Scenes the Foreign office and the German Embassy in Ankara to try for a while to find a solution. From the Turkish side in the process, the bureaucratic problems were mentioned. Since the recent State restructuring was established in the presidential Palace, a new press office, the old one dissolved. So far there is no evidence that the delay “is explicitly justified politically,” said a state Department spokesman two weeks ago in Berlin. And: The Federal government was campaigning vigorously to ensure that the German foreign correspondents, able to work under reasonable conditions in Turkey.
the press passes is also tied to the residence permit of the media staff, and that makes the issue further complicated. Christian Mihr, CEO of reporters without borders (RWB), said it was “unacceptable” that Ankara will refuse since the beginning of the year, many correspondents accreditation. A month ago, the important Turkish local elections on October 31. March could be the “no bureaucratic breakdown”. Mihr sees this as a possible attempt “to independent foreign reporting in Turkey limit”. Not only are the cases of Deniz Yücel and Meşale Tolu had shown, “that the freedom of the press in the German-Turkish relations is not a marginal issue”. ROG has already turned in letters to several EU ambassadors in Ankara. Also affected are journalists from the Netherlands and France. On the ROG ranking of press freedom, Turkey is ranked 157 out of 180 countries.
