THE JOURNALISTS’ Union has strongly protested the “unacceptable behaviour of a customs official” who submitted a Turkish Cypriot journalist to a humiliating search at the Ledra Palace checkpoint.
Turkish Cypriot journalist Murat Kanatli likened the way he was treated by customs officials last Monday to “Nazi Germany”.
In a statement yesterday, Kanatli, who is editor of the Yenicag newspaper, said the purpose of customs checks was no longer “trying to find goods or substances that are illegal, but to harass people by going through all personal notes and printed material carried, just as was practiced by Nazi Germany in the 40s.”
“On Monday evening, while I was crossing to the south, the customs officers asked me if I was carrying forbidden goods, like cigarettes, to which I gave my normal negative answer,” he said.
The customs officer then asked him to open his bag, something Kanatli said he did with no ill-feeling.
“When the officer started to go through my personal notes and files, I asked the necessity of this, to which he replied that he has the right to do so.”
Kanatli then showed the officer his press card – issued by the Cyprus Journalists’ Union (CJU) – and asked again for the reason of this particular search.
“Politely, I warned him that he has no right to read my personal notes and he informed me that he is the chief of the customs officers at the checkpoint and that he has the right to check.”
According to Kanatli, the officer continued to read his notes and proceeded to open one of his political magazines in an attempt to read it. It was in Turkish.
“I showed my CJU press card and stated to him that I would prepare a report on this incident, so I asked him what he was trying to find inside the magazine. He replied that he was looking for ecstasy drugs, thus not only harassing me and invading my personal life, but also accusing me that I was carrying drugs.”
Following a heated discussion, the official requested to see the journalist’s press card again and took his details down.
Kanatli asked for the officer’s name and number.
“He showed me his card in an impolite manner,” claimed Kanatli.
“In my 15 years of bicommunal experience, unfortunately this is the worst period that we have entered during which AKEL and CTP are in a sense in power. Most of the bicommunal relationships and activities have been injured deeply and if the situation continues in this manner then the injuries will be fatal.”
Kanatli was at the time accompanied by former United Democrats candidate parliamentary Nese Yasin. Yasin confirmed Kanatli’s version of events and agreed he had been treated in an improper manner.
“The man asked to see the contents in Murat’s bag,” Yasin told the Mail yesterday.
“He then began opening Murat’s files and looking at his papers and notes. When Murat asked why the official was looking through his papers, the man responded: ‘It’s my job and I can do it if I want to’. When Murat said he wanted to speak to the Director, the officer responded that he was the director and that if there was a complaint then we should go to him.”
Informed of the incident yesterday, Journalists’ Union president Andreas Kannaouros pledged to “investigate this complaint with the strictness and thoroughness that is needed.”
In an official announcement issued later, the CJU’s Board of Directors said they had “reported and condemned the utterly unacceptable behaviour of the customs official towards Turkish Cypriot journalist Murat Kanatli” to Government Spokesman Christodoulos Pashardis.
Referring to the official’s insistence on reading Kanatli’s notes despite him producing his CJU membership card, the announcement read: “The President of the CJU has sent a strong complaint to Government Spokesman Mr Christodoulos Pashardis, stressing the need for this incident to be investigated urgently and regularly by an independent committee and for drastic and effective measures to be taken for the non-repetition of such high-handed and extremely condemnable behaviour, which seriously knocks human rights and human dignity and contributes to the consolidation of the violent division of our country.”
The CJU is now awaiting the response of the government, Kannaouros said.
