News Center- The Turkish Journalists' Association (TGC) has bestowed its 2022 Press Freedom Award on 16 journalists, who were recently arrested in Diyarbakır.

 The association has announced that its “Institutional Award” has been given to the “Resistance and Solidarity against the Censorship Law,” which defies the censorship bill which has been brought up to the agenda of the Turkish parliament.

 “At a time when general elections are approaching, 16 Kurdish journalists were arrested as part of efforts to block citizens’ right to receive news: Abdurrahman Öncü, Aziz Oruç, Elif Üngür, İbrahim Koyuncu, Lezgin Akdeniz, Mazlum Doğan Güler, Mehmet Ali Ertaş , Mehmet Şahin, Neşe Toprak, Ömer Çelik, Ramazan Geciken, Remziye Temel, Safiye Alagaş, Serdar Altan, Suat Doğuhan and Zeynel Abidin Bulut. The award given to them also goes to all journalists, who are prevented from doing their profession and jailed journalists,” the TGC said in its statement.

 The members of the Jury of the 2022 Press Freedom Award of TGC were:

 *Adnan Özyalçıner (Chair of Writers Union of Turkey),

 *Altan Öymen (TGC Honorary Board Chair),

 *Kenan Kocatürk (Chair of the Turkish Publishers Association),

*Nazan Moroğlu (Vice Chair of the Istanbul Bar Association),

 *Prof. Nurçay Türkoğlu (Professor of Communication),

 *Sibel Güneş (TGC Secretary General),

 *Tuğrul Eryılmaz- (T24 Columnist, on behalf of previous laureates),

 *Turgay Olcayto (TGC Chair),

*Zeynep Oral (Chair of PEN Turkey).