President Gül Admits Deficits in Press Freedom

President Abdullah Gül emphasized the importance of the press in a speech delivered in Kayseri (eastern Mediterranean) on 20 October. "Compared to the past, Turkey progressed a lot to fulfil the criteria of the European Union. However, considering press freedom there are a few complaints and deficits", he said.

Together with the President of Northern Cyprus, Derviş Eroğlu, Gül was a guest at the Traditional Award Ceremony of the Kayseri Journalists Association on the occasion of the 31^st Council Meeting of the Heads of the Turkish Journalists Federation. In his speech, he also drew attention to court cases opened against journalists.

Gül aware of increasing number of trials as well

"What took my attention and what I drew attention to in recent times is the increasing number of court cases opened against journalists and the various ways theses trials were opened. I am sure that all of these cases will be sorted out once they are tried at court. Press freedom is also a matter of dignity of a country", Gül indicated.

While Gül delivered his speech in Kayseri, Reporters without Borders (RSF) issued its annual World Press Freedom Index in Paris. Turkey is in the 138^th position among a total of 178 countries.

Similar to Gül, RSF announced that the ongoing backslide of Turkey was mostly based on the quickly increasing number of trials against journalists.

"All thoughts except violence should be free"

Gül pointed out that transparency of a country and the possibility of expressing deficits could be achieved via the press in open societies with functioning control mechanisms. "In these terms, we all consider press freedom as an exceptional value. I have no doubt that is the right of all individuals to prevent the abuse of this freedom", he said.

Gül stressed that an unconstrained press was one of the indispensible principles of democracies. He claimed that it should be possible to express and communicate every sort of thought as long as it does not contain violence. "We are all mature enough to be able to distinguish right from wrong", Gül said.

Gül welcomed Federal President of Germany

As reported by the KayseriHaber.com.tr news website, President Gül attended the Turkish-German Businesspeople Forum in Kayseri together with the Federal President of Germany, Christian Wulff.

Referring to the 3 million Turks living in Germany, Gül said that they were showing their loyalty in the nicest way by protecting their Muslim Turkish identities while integrating into the German society at the same time. He continued:

"Even if different voices are heard from different politicians once in a while, Germany has always abided by the principle of pacta sund servanda. We expect Germany to continue its support for Turkey in the EU accession process". (EÖ/VK)