CoE comissioner for human rights to visit Turkey

Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe (CoE) commissioner for human rights will visit Turkey on Oct. 10-14, to meet with the Turkish justice minister and officials from the Turkish judiciary, as well as representatives of civil society organizations and the media, the Anatolia news agency reported yesterday. Hammarberg was the author of a July report which dwelled on media and press freedom in Turkey, according to Anatolia. In the report Harnmarberg suggested that although Turkey has made progress in creating a free and open platform for the discussion of issues that were once deemed too sensitive to touch upon, the situation with freedom of expression and the media in Turkey is worrying. "There is a need for immediate measures to defend these rights [freedom of expression and the media] and support an environment of tolerance to accommodate opposing views," Hammarberg noted in his report.