The arrest of Dündar and Gül in November 2015 fired the debate on press freedom in Turkey; a few hours before being sentenced in May, Dündar survived an assassination attempt outside the courthouse in Istanbul.
Premio Ischia for Human Rights 2016 goes to Can Dündar
The Editor in Chief of the Turkish daily Cumhuriyet will meet the press at “Leonardo da Vinci” International Airport in Fiumicino on Friday 1st July at 11.00 am.
Sentenced to 5 years and 10 months in prison for “revealing secrets of state” the Editor in Chief of the opposition daily Cumhuriyet will arrive in the Roman airport on Friday 1st July, where he will hold a press conference. The journalist, for the first time in Italy, will then travel to Ischia where he is expected to take part in meetings and debates before the final evening of the XXXVIIth edition of the Premio Ischia on Saturday 2nd July in Lacco Ameno.
On 6th May Can Dündar and Erdem Gül, the Ankara bureau chief, were sentenced for disclosing that weapons were being transferred to Syria and that a lorries of the Turkish intellingence agency had crossed the Syrian border, as a result the two journalists spent 92 days in prison facing charges of espionage, threat to the State security and of aiding armed terror organizations.
The choice of “Leonardo da Vinci” Airport as the location for Can Dündar’s press conference, which officially opens the Premio Ischia, stresses the fact that press freedom, as the freedom of recounting the world, is a universal value. The Rome airport, managed by ADR Group, with over 40 million travellers a year, is a space where meetings, exchanges, opportunities and debates take place in freedom from borders or cultural diversities.
The arrest of Dündar and Gül in November 2015 fired the debate on press freedom in Turkey; a few hours before being sentenced in May, Dündar survived an assassination attempt outside the courthouse in Istanbul.
Dündar’s special award was strongly supported and unanimously voted by the Jury of Premio Ischia whose members are Giulio Anselmi, president of Ansa, Alessandro Barbano Editor-in-chief of Il Mattino, Mario Calabresi Editor-in-chief of Repubblica, Luigi Contu Editor-in-chief of Ansa, Virman Cusenza Editor-in-Chief of Messaggero, Luciano Fontana Editor-in-chief of Corriere della Sera, Enzo D’Errico Editor-in-chief of Corriere del Mezzogiorno, Pierfrancesco De Robertis Editor-in-Chief of La Nazione, Carlo Gambalonga vice-president of Fondazione Premio Ischia, Sebastiano Maffettone culture councillor for Regione Campania, Giuseppe Marra president of Adnkronos, Clemente Mimun Editor-in-Chief of Tg5, Mario Orfeo Editor-in-Chief of Tg1, Tobias Piller President of the Foreign Press Association in Italy, Gaia Tortora deputy editor of La Sette, Maarten van Aalderen correspondent for De Telegraaf, Sarah Varetto Editor-in-chief of SkyTg24, Giovanni Maria Vian Editor-in-Chief of L’Osservatore Romano and Luigi Vicinanza Editor-in-chief of L’Espresso.
The freedom of journalists and of the media – the Jury writes – is the vital condition for a working democracy: it is among the journalist’s duties to bring to light facts and occurrences that governments hide from the public, as Can Dündar and his daily newspaper Cumhuriyet have done. Thanks to his work as a journalist and his fearless commitment to the freedom of the press, Can Dündar has become an iconic figure also for all European journalists.
Premio Ischia enjoys the patronage of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and is sponsored by Regione Campania, the Chamber of Commerce in Naples, the Istituto di Credito Sportivo, Autostrade per l’Italia and Poste Vita, ADS Group, Coca-Cola Italia, Mercedes A.M.B. and Selezione Auto S.p.a.
