Greece: Mistreatment And Cuffing Of Exiled Journalist Berçem Mordeniz Is Unacceptable.
Location: Greece, Athens
Date: August 10, 2020
Two Kurdish journalists from Turkey, Çağdaş Kaplan and Berçem Mordeniz, captured the battery and detention of one person by police in Syntagma Square in Athens, the capital city of Greece. Journalists themselves have also been battered and taken into custody while their work was impeded.
While they have been detained despite showing their international press cards, they have been taken to the Acropolis Police Station.
Yunanistan’da Gazeteci Çağdaş Kaplan ve Berçem Mordeniz Gözaltına Alındıhttps://t.co/CF84RHcUTw pic.twitter.com/ICiOkD2jGA
— Meydan Gazetesi (@meydangazetesi) August 10, 2020
The journalists were detained in a brutal way, handcuffed with plastic cuffs with their arms bent back.
The journalists indicated that other citizens who witnessed the violence and protested against it were not able to enter the police station and they were refused as testifying as witnesses.
Berçem Mordeniz who has asthma was not given her medication and no water was provided to the journalists.
Sending a message to Gazete Karınca news website based in Turkey, the journalistsindicated that no measures have been taken against the coronavirus outbreak in the police station, they are held in the same detention room with 40 others and they are subjected to torture.
Çağdaş and Berçem will be referred to the courthouse today. We call upon the international community to act in solidarity with the two journalists and ensure they are being represented by lawyers.
Treatment of journalists in a country that prides itself on being the birthplace of democracy is unacceptable. We expect better from the Greek authorities and demand immediate release of Çağdaş and Berçem along with an investigation against the police forces who used unproportional force during detention.
The CFWIJ strongly condemns the police brutality against journalists. We demand the immediate return of the press cards seized from the security forces. Policies to intimidate journalists should be abandoned, and journalism should be practiced under the criteria of freedom of the press.
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