ISTANBUL (AP) – Vice Media is carrying out a two-hour blackout on its websites to call attention to an Iraqi Kurdish journalist who has been held in Turkish jails without charges since being arrested while working for the news organization.
Mohammed Rasool has been in jail for nearly eight weeks. He was detained while serving as a fixer for two British journalists for Vice News covering the conflict in Turkey’s Kurdish southeast. On Wednesday, Vice News’ parent group was directing all of its digital sites to a petition addressed to Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan that calls for Rasool’s release.
Vice Media organized the petition with the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists. CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon called Rasool’s case “a tremendous injustice.”
“It is also a reminder of the essential role of media support staff, the fixers, stringers, translators and drivers who risk their lives to bring us the news,” he said.
Rasool, who marked his 25th birthday on Tuesday, was arrested Aug. 27 along with Vice’s Jake Hanrahan and Philip Pendlebury. The three journalists had traveled to towns along Turkey’s border with Iraq, the center of renewed violence between Kurdish militants and government forces.