Industry & Advocacy News
September 2, 2016
Today the Authors Guild joined four other publishing industry groups in signing a letter to President Obama expressing disturbance over the crackdown on free speech that has plagued Turkey since the unsuccessful coup on July 15, and urging the President to address these events when he meets with Turkish President Erdoğan on September 4.
Attacks on free speech have continued since earlier this month when we supported the International Federation of Journalists’ campaign of solidarity with Turkish journalists who had been imprisoned following the coup. In addition to the detention of journalists, 29 publishing houses have been shuttered by a “State of Emergency Decree” requiring them to hand over to the government all goods, assets, rights, documents, and papers. “This threatens the economic viability of the entire Turkish publishing community,” the letter states, “potentially reducing the diversity of voices further and creating a deep chill on the expression of opinion in Turkish society.”
Read the letter here.
Photo credit: mighty.travels via VisualHunt / CC BY
