In a letter sent on March 22, 2018, to Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, and Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, ahead of the March 26 meeting with President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in Varna, Bulgaria, CPJ called to raise the issue of press freedom and demand the release of jailed Turkish journalists. Turkey is the world’s leading jailer of journalists, with more than 70 behind bars in relation to their work at the time of CPJ’s latest prison census.
“The EU still has leverage to improve the press freedom situation in Turkey. However, as the slide to absolute authoritarianism continues, this leverage will weaken. The time to act is now.”, the letter reads.
Read the entire text here.
