The Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) continues to attend webinar series entitled ‘Three decades of upholding democracy and human rights’ organised by Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), in cooperation with the Office of the Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFoM) and the Office of the High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM), and with the support of the 2020 Albanian OSCE Chairmanship. On 21 October 2020, ABTTF International Affairs Director Melek Kırmacı Arık attended the fourth webinar on ‘Access to information and freedom of the media’.
In the webinar where the parameters with respect to access to information were discussed, Ombudsman and Information Commissioner of Ireland Peter Tyndall, Deputy Director in charge of Complaints at the Spanish Transparency Council Esperanza Zambrano and Adviser to the Information and Data Protection Commissioner of Albania Besa Tauzi explained the situation in their countries with respect to the information provided to the citizens especially during the period of COVID-19 and the assessment of the citizens’ requests for access to information as well as their complaints.
ABTTF which explained in a written form to the OSCE the issues pertaining to access to information of the Turkish community in Western Thrace during COVID-19 as well as issues experienced in the area of freedom of the media in the country, relayed the fact that as a result of the non-recognition of the ethnic Turkish identity of the Turkish community in Western Thrace, there were no information given in Turkish with respect to the special measures taken by the government during the first period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Indicating that Western Thrace Turks have followed the developments through the press of the Turkish community in Western Thrace in the region, ABTTF explained that while the government has supported media outlets throughout Greece as part of informing citizens about the coronavirus pandemic with approximately 20 million euros, no such support was granted to the Western Thrace Turkish minority media which is broadcasting in Turkish.
