The arrest of Cumhuriyet Newspaper Editor-in-Chief Can Dündar and Ankara Representative Erdem Gül  who wrote about the ongoing investigation regarding the trucks belonging to National Intelligence Organization’s (MIT) is a worrying development for freedom of press and expression in our country. Freedom of the press is an essential value and norm for a democratic and free society. This decision will lead to further limitations on freedom of press and will strengthen the practice of auto-censorship for the preparation and publication of news.

Freedom of press has been one of the most criticized issues in the 2015 Turkey Progress Report published by the European Commission. Turkey’s EU membership objective dates back to 1959 with its application for association and it became a state policy and a societal project. For this objective to be reached, it is imperative for Turkey to pursue its reform process for its alignment with EU norms and standards.

As Turkey’s EU expert and a civil society organisation which has been working on this area since its foundation in 1965, IKV calls upon all related parties and members of the judiciary to respect and not to contravene freedom of press which is an EU norm and a universal value.