Detained journalist Ziya Ataman, a trainee reporter on DİHA which was closed under a decree with the force of law, has sent a letter to Evrensel. Ataman, who has been detained for more than three years, will have a hearing on 24 September.
Dear Evrensel family,
I submit deep love and respect and wish all my working colleagues a just, equal and free life.
Topping the truths where all demographics find a unique meeting of minds is the fact that it is labour that makes humans human. Owing to labour’s creative force and its being the distillation of humans’ very bodies-thought and effort, all who are human agree that respect for labour is respect for humans and denial of labour is denial of humans. Your stance and sensitivity as the Evrensel family that is respectful of the truth that it is labour that secures honour for life and humanity, defensive of the labour of the people and painstaking in countering injustice and your being embraced so vigorously and the consent of all oppressed sections of society to you being their voice in a speculation and mind-boggling environment in which thousands of lies are worth a bit is down to the denominator of truth that you represent in contradistinction to the mainstream media and pool media which support all manner of exploitation and usurpation of labour in the period we find ourselves in.
I, as a colleague, see, observe and greet with respect that you are exemplary in enlarging this denominator of truth with each day that passes and defending the rights and honour of the profession of journalism.
There has forever been a need in this country for the Evrensel family’s universal character on the path of true journalism and in this period this need and the value of your labour has become all the better understood by all demographics.
You as the Evrensel family have laboured and positioned yourselves not so as to fill a gap but to permit no gaps to form in journalism, and will continue to do so.
One of the most frequent recourses of the powerful is to engender forgetfulness, lose from sight, make silent and usher into darkness. This is the sole way they can grab opportunities to repeat these things they do. Those who perform the profession of journalism under oppression are the biggest obstacle to society being swept up in the “river of forgetfulness.” Journalists who are remembered and lay bare have forever suffered and suffer attacks of all kinds by the powerful.
Withstanding great oppression, you as the Evrensel family have never held back from telling the truth, either, at the cost of martyring your cherished children.
You are the viewfinder of enlightenment against all the gloom with the journalism and colleagueship à la Metin Göktepe and have not permitted forgetfulness. You have stood by the detained and disappeared never letting them be forgotten and have forever been the voice of the silenced. This journalism is in the true sense free journalism in opposition to all restrictions. The journalism of those who do not bend their pens. You have been the voice of me personally and many detained journalists. I deem it my duty on a personal note to indicate in particular that that with reference to both my hearings and my health you have expended labour and brought them to attention countless times, and sensitivity was engendered especially regarding hospital transfers as a result of your labours and I began to be taken to and from hospital, however superficial the treatment.
I wish to thank you for the labour you have expended and your solidarity.
It is for sure not easy to conduct journalism in the true sense in a period in which those whose concern is our lack of nuclear beauties proclaim pen and paper to be instruments of crime. In this environment in which the media is in its death throes, your being the voice of those who impart the truth and engaging in true journalism despite all the constraints and gloom is one of the most meaningful responses given to the period.
I and many of my journalist colleagues have been thrown behind bars for insisting on true journalism. I have a hearing on 24 September at which journalism will continue to be put on trial. Ours will be an important message that invites to the hearing all our journalist colleagues who support true and free journalism so as to create awareness around standing by true journalism and the tradition of a free press. Rounding up here, I would like to say again that our valued labour is noticed and met with respect by all. We have never given up speaking the truth. We will each continue as a free journalist to scream against injustice and lay bare exploitation.
Ziya Ataman
(Translated by Tim DRAYTON)
Bülent Falakaoğlu
Hakkı Özdal
