Nedim Türfent

(Kurdish journalist from Turkey, JiR in 2023/2024)

I was just one of dozens of journalists imprisoned in Turkey for their journalistic work. I joined ECPMF’s JiR Programme after 6 years and 7 months of continuous imprisonment.

While I was behind bars, I received hundreds of unique letters of support and solidarity from European countries, especially from Germany. This support gave me a matchless resilience in prison.

And needless to say, joining the JiR Programme after my imprisonment, on the one hand, allowed me to prepare for my profession again, to rest, to breathe, and on the other hand, it gave me the strength to hold the pen more firmly. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the JiR Programme is a doctor, or at least a medicine.

If the sworn enemies of journalism, words and pens, leave you breathless with all kinds of pressures ranging from judicial cudgels to economic sanctions, this is your place. In a legal saying, the JiR Programme is a “sine qua non” for you to find yourself and to gain more power and energy. I am lucky and happy to have had the opportunity to learn this empirically. Now, it is your turn.

Photos: Andreas Lamm