Lord Patten – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Patten on 2016-03-07.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions they have had with the EU about its public response to the takeover of the Turkish newspaper Zaman.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

EU leaders discussed the issue of press freedom with the Turkish Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, at the EU-Turkey summit on Monday 7 March. As a friend and ally, we urge the Turkish government to uphold the right of media to operate without restriction. The Prime Minister, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), did so when he met Turkey’s Prime Minister at the summit and underlined the importance of protections for a free press and human rights in Turkey. We welcomed the EU Commission’s Annual Progress Report on Turkey, released on 10 November 2015, which highlighted the need for further reforms from Turkey in these areas.