Journalism award for Ahmet Şık from Germany

The Günter Wallraff Critical Journalism Award has been bestowed on journalist Ahmet Şık, who is being held in detention in Istanbul’s Silivri Prison, and the news portal ‘taz.gazete’ published in Turkish and German in Berlin.

News Enlightenment Initiative Director Hektor Haarkötter said in his address to the award ceremony forming part of the Third Cologne Forum for Critical Journalism ‘We wanted to show with this award that critical journalism is not incarcerated within prison walls.’

The award was received on behalf of Ahmet Şık by his wife

The Günter Wallraff Critical Journalism Award was received on behalf of jailed journalist Ahmet Şık by his wife, Yonca Şık.

According to a report by Deutsche Welle Turkish, the statement made by the News Enlightenment Initiative stresses that Ahmet Şık is a brave and investigative journalist and notes that he has come to attention for his critical stance towards the state and censorship for time he has been in detention.

The news portal in Turkish and German, taz.gazete, set up by Berlin-based Die Tageszeitung, started publishing this year.

In the statement made by the Initiative, stress was laid on taz.gazete’s endeavours to reinforce alternative views on matters relating to Turkey and maintain a dialogue with journalists in Turkey. Taz.gazete’s writers and reporters publish reports from various European countries as well as Turkey concerning the latest developments and situation in Turkey.

Last year the ‘News Watch’ took the award

Alongside the German journalist Günter Wallraff, the private television station RTL gives financial support to the Günter Wallraff Award. The awards, given for the third time, were bestowed last year on the ‘News Watch’ group of volunteer journalists established in solidarity with journalists in Turkey’s eastern and south-eastern regions, and the year before to Udo Stiehl and Sebastian Pertsch, founders of the ‘Floskelwelle’ internet portal that criticises the language of reports carried in the media.