Hamdi Dindirek and Sude Parlak
14 April 2024•Update: 14 April 2024
ISTANBUL
Anadolu Publishers Federation (AYF) has launched a continuous 24-hour live broadcast in Istanbul to commemorate journalists who have been killed in Israel's attacks against the Gaza Strip and to protest the attacks.
At the historical German Fountain in Sultanahmet Square, a stage was set up with the inscription "We stand guard for the journalists killed in Palestine."
The head of AYF, Sinan Burhan, told Anadolu that with support from Türkiye's Communications Director Fahrettin Altun, that the broadcast is not politically motivated and is not affiliated with any party.
He said that "140 of our journalists have been martyred or killed in Palestine. What were these journalists doing? They were being the voice of the Palestinian people. They were exposing Israeli state terrorism to the world.”
Altun connected to the program by telephone and said: "Türkiye has always stood by the rightful cause of Palestine, consistently supporting innocent civilians and the innocent Palestinians.
"Here, there is an effort to obscure the truth, a systematic effort to conceal it, and those who resist this systematic effort are journalists on the ground, engaged in a rightful struggle," he said.
He stressed despite facing numerous obstacles, threats and attempts on their lives, journalists in continue to "uphold the integrity of journalism, elevating its status in media history."
"Indeed, Israel's propaganda management closely resembles the fascist propaganda tactics they supposedly reference and demonize as backward," he added.
Muin Naim, a Palestinian researcher and journalist, called recent events in the Gaza Strip the "worst journalist massacre in history."
He noted that even in major conflicts like World War I and II, or Russia's attacks on Ukraine, not as many journalists were killed, accusing Israel of deliberately targeting journalists.
