#FreeRasool demands release of jailed Kurdish journalist in Turkey
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region- News organizations and activists started #FreeRasool campaign to demand the release of Mohammed Ismaeel Rasool, Vice News’s Kurdish journalist jailed in Turkey since Aug. 27.
Rasool, who is from Iraqi Kurdistan, was arrested by Turkish security forces with two other British Vice News journalists, Jake Hanrahan and Philip Pendlebury, while filming clashes between Turkish police and Kurdish protestors in Diyarbakir province. Hanrahan and Pendlebury were released after 13 days, but Rasool was kept in prison.
Vice News, other news organizations and activists started #FreeRasool campaign to demand the immediate release of Rasool.
On Wednesday, October 21, Vice News Media went black showing a screen with a message asking visitors to sign a petition calling Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to release their colleague.
The petition on Change.org started by Vice News and Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and signed by more than 13,000 people by Thursday 9:00 GMT, asked Turkish president to release Rasool.
“Rasool’s imprisonment is a grave injustice, no less so than imprisoning two British journalists. All three were on assignment when they were detained. We call on Turkish authorities to release Rasool at once,” read the statement.
Many of Rasool’s friends in Iraqi Kurdistan took part in the campaign urging others to sign the petition.
Turkish security forces is in jail on charges of joining a terrorist organization. Ismaeel Rasool, jailed journalist’s father, had previously told Rudaw that his son is no way guilty of the charges.