It has been almost three months since the arrest of the Cumhuriyet journalists in Turkey and they still find themselves behind bars pending trial. Last Friday, IPI received through our members in Turkey a letter from Kadri Gürsel, IPI Executive Board Member and respected Cumhuriyet columnist, who is among the journalists arrested last November. This is the letter he has sent to all of you who have supported him and his colleagues. Please read and keep up the fight with us! ______________________________________________________________________ Letter from Kadri Gürsel I salute you all with love from B Block, Ward Number 25 of Silivri Prison Number 9. My ward-mates Turhan Günay and Musa Kart also send many greetings. In these harsh times – as press freedom is under the utmost pressure, freedom of expression is forced out, the right to assembly and demonstration is almost eradicated – we are grateful for your efforts to keep the struggle for journalists and journalism alive. If I weren’t imprisoned in the Silivri Prison today, I would also be standing together with you, with whom I have been fighting for press freedom for many years. Now, from where I stand, as a journalist I understand once again how significant and how important your struggle is. We were arrested three months ago as part of a political operation aimed at silencing and destroying the Cumhuriyet newspaper, and we understand through the questions directed at us by the prosecutor’s office that we are accused of acting on behalf of a terrorist organization without being a member of it. We really wonder how the attorney general will prove this accusation. We all know well that the allegations against us cannot be supported by evidence. If they were, then a judicial procedure against us could have been started by now to achieve the goal of this political operation. But time goes by, our imprisonment evolves into a punishment in itself and we are subjected to arbitrary detention. Oddly, we are guilty because there is no evidence against us. The judicial process is delayed due to the lack of any evidence. It is desired that we remain imprisoned and this is fundamentally representative of the period we are in. Criminalising journalism and keeping journalists in prisons because of journalistic work that does not involve any criminal act have once again become one of the major problems for freedom of press and the rule of law in our country. As a journalist kept behind bars and an activist for freedom of the press, I salute you all and wish you success in your struggle. Kadri Gürsel ____________________________________________________________________ For more information: Follow us on Twitter: @globalfreemedia Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InternationalPressInstituteIPI/ Or help us continue our fight: http://ipi.media/support-us/