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Dear all, The below letter has today been sent to the Minister of National Education in Turkey from MecCCSA in solidarity with our colleagues in Turkey struggling for academic freedom, losing their jobs and in some cases, facing imprisonment. Please consider sending your own letter in support. All best Natalie ____________________________________ Prof. Nabi Avci, Minister of National Education, Atatürk Bulvarı No: 98 Bakanlıklar/ANKARA Republic of Turkey Dear Sir, I am writing on behalf of the Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association (MeCCSA), which is the national subject association for the fields in its title in UK universities, representing the interests of both academic staff and students. We have been alarmed recently by news from Turkey relating to both academics in our field and more widely. We are horrified by suggestions that the Turkish authorities are considering measures against signatories to a call for peace within your country, and that such measures include removing them from their university positions or even imprisoning them. Such measures would flout the human right to freedom of expression and they most certainly violate academic freedom. We call on the Turkish government to act urgently to ensure freedom of expression is protected and sustained, by dropping all charges against those who have signed the petition for peace. As scholars concerned with the study of communications and media, we condemn in the strongest possible terms actions taken against our colleagues in Turkey. Freedom of thought and opinion is guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey. Such freedom is itself essential for the functioning of science and scholarship. We are sure the authorities in Turkey would not wish to compromise the activities of Turkish scholars or to harm the international reputation of Turkish scholarship and academic life. Your interest in this matter, not least given your own distinguished background in communication science, will, we trust, ensure such freedoms and scholarly independence are properly secured and promoted. Yours sincerely, Professor Natalie Fenton Chair, MeCCSA -------------------------------------------------------- MeCCSA mailing list -------------------------------------------------------- To manage your subscription or unsubscribe from the MECCSA list, please visit: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=MECCSA&A=1 ------------------------------------------------------- MeCCSA is the subject association for the field of media, communication and cultural studies in UK Higher Education. This mailing list is a free service and is not restricted to members. It is an unmoderated list and content reflect the views of those who post to the list and not of MeCCSA as an organisation. MeCCSA recommends that the list be used only for posting of information (for example about events, publications, conferences, lectures) of interest to members or to promote discussion of current issues of wide general interest in the field. Posts to the MeCCSA mailing list are public, indexed by Google, and can be accessed from the JISCMail website (http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/meccsa.html). Any messages posted to the list are subject to the JISCMail acceptable use policy, which states that users should avoid engaging in unreasonable behaviour, or disrupting the general flow of discussion on a list. For further information, please visit: http://www.meccsa.org.uk/ --------------------------------------------------------