With concerns over the spread of Covid-19 inside prisons, reports suggest Turkish authorities are preparing to release up to 100,000 prisoners. However, rights groups remain deeply concerned that journalists and others imprisoned for simply exercising their rights will remain behind bars.

The Golden Pen of Freedom, the annual press freedom award of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), has been awarded to Turkish journalist and former editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet newspaper, Can Dündar.

The Board of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), meeting in Durban, South Africa on 7th June 2017, calls on Turkish authorities to immediately free all journalists jailed in relation to their work in Turkey, and to re-establish conditions that would support a free press in the country.