How moral is the CPJ approach?

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released its special press report for 2014. According to the report, Turkey, along with China, Iran, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Vietnam, Burma, Azerbaijan, Syria and Egypt, are the world's worst 10 countries for journalists. In 2014, 220 journalists were put behind bars worldwide with China taking the lead. If the rate was evaluated based on population, China would probably be in a much better position, but it seems that the CPJ's assessment is not a comparative one. When the number of "journalists in prison" is taken directly as a criterion, supposedly, Turkey ranks 10th among the world's worst 10 countries. Also, according to the same report, press censorship in 2013 increased by 10 percent compared to previous years. If you judge "censorship" in accordance with the number of journalists in prison, you can come up with numerous other similar "tangible" yet meaningless conclusions. But you won't have the chance to produce a real analysis of how the freedom of press is censored in different countries and cultures.

This year's report, in the heat of the moment, also took into account the Dec. 14 interrogations. In the relevant section it is said that "at least two dozen individuals -- including journalists, television show producers, scriptwriters" were detained and the expected comment follows soon afterward: These detainments were part of a political move by Erdoğan and the ruling party. The problem is the CPJ's extreme eagerness to reach a certain conclusion and its failure to hide this. Each one of the "numerous" journalists and writers were invited to provide information on a single matter, and as a result, only four people – three of them being police officers – were referred to court for arrest. The CPJ was not interested in the reason why these people were called to the prosecutor's office either. They counted the people in jail, listed the countries in a table and continued to be a "reputable" nongovernmental organization. However, reputability first requires one to take the right attitude toward one's own work and the public opinion in your sphere of influence. This is possible through approaching circumstances objectively and justly and by refraining from exploiting the truth for politics.

The CPJ is not an institute that fulfills this criterion with success. For years, it has been superficial in its assessments and it doesn't seem to have the skills necessary to comprehend the truth of any country. A CPJ delegation with members from the International Press Institute had paid a visit to Turkey's Justice Ministry in October this year. During the visit, they presented a list of 10 people who they claimed were in prison for being journalists. All the names on the list were checked one by one in the presence of the entire committee, with the particulars pertaining to those persons also shared with them.

Accordingly, three people were prosecuted for crimes such as injury, murder, bank robbery and theft and were sentenced to life in prison, with their sentences approved by the Supreme Court of Appeals. Three others were prosecuted for crimes such as the possession of firearms, firearm injury, getting children to join the [terrorist] organization on the mountain, and as a result sentenced to more than 10 years in prison, with their sentences approved by the Supreme Court of Appeals.

Two of the other four people were released upon serving their sentences, one was directly released and the other person's trial is still continuing, i.e. he is on remand.

In short, there were actually seven journalists in Turkey's jails, but six of them were jailed on the grounds of demonstrations that had nothing to do with journalism. Had the same demonstrations been carried out by seven doctors or seven shop owners, they too would have been in jail now. This leaves one person, who could be released pending trial, yet it should be remembered that this decision is up to the court to make, depending on what crime the person is charged with.

So, based on the CPJ's report, how many "journalists" are there in Turkey's jails? How moral do you think the CPJ's approach is?