Today was one of those times I would have given anything to be a fly on the wall in the rooms where the two top European diplomats spoke to Turkish officials in Ankara.<\/p>\n
While the Dutch journalist Frederike Geerdink was appearing in court charged under Turkish anti-terror laws in the south-east town of Diyarbakir, and the country\u2019s president was accusing several media organisations and journalists for being \u201caccomplices to terror\u201d during an attack in Istanbul last week, European Parliament President Martin Schulz and Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) President Anne Brasseur were visiting the country. \u00a0A couple of days before their arrival, access to social media sites Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were again banned for a while and Google was threatened with a similar action.<\/p>\n
On the eve of their visit, the pro-government daily Yeni Safak<\/a> published a leaked document said to be the latest version of the National Security Policy. \u00a0\u00a0In it, social media such as Twitter were listed as one of the main threats to Turkey\u2019s national security, along with the Kurdish separatist movement the PKK, Islamist extremists ISIS and the so-called parallel state structures in Turkey of the Pennsylvania-based preacher Fethullah Gulen.<\/p>\n High level meetings with the visiting dignitaries must have been somewhat awkward for Martin Schulz told reporters that freedom of expression topped the agenda during his contacts in Turkey. No doubt the PACE President, Anne Brasseur, has also confronted the issue in her meetings with the government, the opposition and the representatives of civil society organisations.<\/p>\n The EU may not have much clout left with the Turkish government but Turkey is still a full member of the Council of Europe (CoE) and as such under obligation to uphold the principles of human rights, the rule of the law and plural democracy.<\/p>\n Only last week, the Council of Europe launched a new Internet\u00a0platform<\/a>\u00a0aimed at protecting journalism. The platform, with its partner organisations – the Association of European Journalists<\/a>, the European Federation of Journalists, Article 19, the International Federation of Journalists and Reporters Without Borders \u2013 will no doubt bring some of these issues to the attention of the CoE institutions.<\/p>\n President Erdogan\u2019s accusation<\/a> that \u201cthe organs of the press being on the side of the terrorists\u201d follows the publication of\u00a0 photographs showing prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz held hostage with a gun held to his head, shortly before he, along with his captors died in a shootout on 31st<\/sup> March.<\/p>\n Coverage of the attack on Istanbul\u2019s main courthouse and the use of images in the media supplied by the militants have raised legitimate concerns among some journalists, including in this blog<\/a>.\u00a0 However, those were questions of professional ethics, the kind that journalists debate among themselves and their own organisations oversee. President Erdogan claimed that such a behaviour by the media would not be tolerated in \u201cWestern countries that are seen as the cradle of democracy, rights and freedoms\u201d. \u201cCourts would shut them down immediately\u201d he said.<\/p>\n