The community of Wigan in England is calling upon its colleagues and their community to support, band together and insist on the immediate release of the three journalists held in Turkey on what VICE calls "alarmingly false charges, by going to social media as soon as possible. Wigan says either tweet or share on Facebook using the hashtag #freevicenewsstaff as soon as possible.
Two U.K. journalists, VICE News correspondent Jake Hanrahan and cameraman Philip Pendelbury, along with their Turkey-based fixer, were charged last week with "engaging in terrorist activity".
"Today the Turkish government has leveled baseless and alarmingly false charges of working on behalf of a terrorist organization against three VICE News reporters, in an attempt to intimidate and censor their coverage," said Kevin Sutcliffe, VICE's head of news programming in Europe.
"VICE News condemns in the strongest possible terms the Turkish government's attempts to silence our reporters who have been providing vital coverage from the region," Sutcliffe said in statement, as previously reported by HNGN.
Today, the three journalists, still in Turkish custody, were moved to a high security prison five hours away from both the court they are set to appear, and from their legal representation, according to VICE.
"Respect for freedom of expression and the right of media to operate without restriction are fundamental in any democratic society," said a Foreign Office spokesman, according to Wigan Today. "Turkey is a state party to the European Convention on Human Rights and UN Declaration of Human Rights. We would expect the Turkish authorities to uphold the obligations enshrined in those agreements."
