Thomas

Spence, the President of the Norwegian Journalists' Union (NJ) has written to

the Norwegian King and Queen asking them to act on the violation of journalists'

rights in Turkey before their state visit on 5 - 7 November.  In the letter, Spence highlighted the

disturbing fact that 63 journalists are currently imprisoned as a result of

their professional work. He has urged the King and Queen to raise this

issue to the Turkish Prime Minister during the visit.

The NJ is a

member of the EFJ and has actively campaigned for the freedom of journalists in

Turkey. NJ has supported the EFJ campaign to ‘Set Journalists Free in Turkey'

by ‘adopting ' journalists, Tuncay Özkan and Mustafa Balbay,

to raise national and international awareness of their cases. Earlier this

month, NJ has written to the Turkis ambassador in Oslo condemning

the severe sentences given to the journalists and asked for the release of the

two journalists.

For more details, please see the Interview

with Thomas Spence in Dagens Næringliv (Norway's leading business newspaper)

regarding our appeal to the Norwegian King.