UN
Journalist
Canikligil
Arrested &
Freed
in Turkey For
Past Tweets, Spin
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, June 21
-- On
June 20 Inner
City Press was
alerted that
UN
correspondent
Razi
Canikligil had
been detained
by authorities
at the airport
in Istanbul.
The detention
had to do with
his tweets, a
previous
arrest warrant
mysteriously
still on the
books. Both
Inner City
Press and the
Free
UN Coalition
for Access
(FUNCA)
quickly
tweeted the
news, then
dug more into
it.
An inquiry
with the
Turkish
Mission to
the UN led to
a response,
online here,
that the
arrest was
“due to
technical
mistake after
an individual
court case,
not tweets.”
While
appreciative
of the
response, it
is not
entirely correct
that the
arrest was not
due to tweets.
The
newspaper
account the
Turkish
mission
directed FUNCA
to says “ a
local court in
Ankara had
issued an
arrest warrant
for Canikligil
in 2015 over
his social
media posts
after a
complaint from
Union of
Chambers and
Commodity
Exchanges of
Turkey (TOBB)
head Rifat
Hisarciklioglu.”
It
also
references the
UN
Correspondents
Association,
an
organization
that pushed to
get the Press
thrown out not
only of the UN
Press Briefing
Room but of
its long time
office, to be
given to a
former UNCA
President from
Egyptian state
media who
rarely comes
into the UN
and never asks
questions.
We'll have
more on this.
Relatedly,
as the
Egyptian
government
steps up its
crackdown on
the media, in late
May
arresting
Yahia Galash,
head of the
Press
Syndicate and
senior board
members Khaled
Elbalshy and
Gamal Abd
el-Reheem, the
Sisi-supporting
media has
stayed quiet
or
participated.
This
includes
Akhbar Elyom,
the publication
to which the
UN of Ban
Ki-moon is
giving the
long time
shared office
space of Inner
City Press,
from which the
UN evicted
Inner City
Press on April
14
(see New York
Times of May
14, here).
On May
31 Inner City
Press - not
Akhbar Elyom -
asked Ban's
spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric about
the crackdown
in Egypt. Video here, UN
Transcript
here:
Inner
City Press: in
Egypt.
I’m waiting
for a
statement
there…
[inaudible]
Spokesman:
They apply
across the
board.
We, obviously,
have seen the
reports of new
charges being
brought
against the
Union of
Journalists in
Egypt.
We remain
concerned at
the
situation.
We’re
following it
closely.
If
Team Ban saw
the crackdown
and was so
concerned, why
did it issue
no statement
until asked by
Inner City
Press? Why is
it giving
Inner City
Press' long
time UN office
to Egyptian
state media
Akhbar Elyom,
whose rarely
seen
correspondent
Sanaa Youssef,
a former
President of
the UN
Correspondents
Association,
asks no
questions at
all?
Perhaps the
question
answers
itself. We'll
have more on
this.
This
while Ban
Ki-moon speaks
about
"authoritarian
impulses" and
ostensibly for
press freedom,
while
campaigning in
South Korea. (See
article in
Korean here,
robo-translation
here.)
Meanwhile
the Committee
to Protect
Journalists
has said
“Authorities
are pursuing
Yehia Qallash,
Khaled
al-Balshy, and
Gamal Abdel
Rahim for
trying to
defend the
Egyptian media
against a
thin-skinned
and brutal
security
apparatus,"
CPJ Middle
East and North
Africa Program
Coordinator
Sherif Mansour
said. "We call
on Egyptian
prosecutors to
drop these
charges
immediately
and stop
harassing
journalists."
But CPJ has
yet to speak
on Ban's UN
evicting the
investigative
press, much
less on Ban
then giving
Inner City
Press' UN
shared office
to Egyptian
state media
Akhbar Elyom.
We'll have
more on this.
, 
