International Journalists Association e.V. participated in the ‘Revolutionale 2021 Festival for Change’, the festival of change, held in Leipzig. Our association made presentations at the ‘Round Table’ meetings within the scope of the festival.
Between October 8-10, about 60 activists from 20 countries representing international Non-Governmental Organizations, participated in the festival.
Journalist Yüksel Durgut, Director of Foreign Relations, represented our association at the sessions, who was invited to the Round Table meetings under the title of defense of media freedom, freedom of the press and investigative journalism.
Yüksel Durgut, who himself served time in prison after July 15, emphasized the support of independent media in authoritarian regimes through his own experiences. Durgut gave an example of the Journalist POST magazine, which was published with limited opportunities, to the participants and explained that journalists who had to leave Turkey were not adequately supported by international NGOs.
The conditions of journalists in Turkey and those who had to flee and left their country behind were also discussed at the meetings.
Durgut noted that at the meetings, the association deals with the problems of not only journalists of Turkish origin, but also journalists internationally, and they are still trying to survive without support. He informed the participants about the situation of journalists in Afghanistan.
The problems journalists face, especially in Belarus, the troubled country of Eastern Europe, were also discussed at the meetings.
The Journalist POST magazine, which is published in three different languages, and online as well, by the International Journalists Association, attracted great attention from the participants.
At the end of each day, the final statement was read. Yüksel Durgut answered the questions in this section and emphasized that there are more than 150 journalists forced to leave Turkey in Germany alone, and also stressed the importance of working on the training of a new generation of young journalists.
