An open letter to Turkey’s ambassador from Nation cartoonist Stephff
Re: “Editorial exploited killing of journalist to make baseless attack on Turkey’s president”, Have Your Say, yesterday.
Your Excellency,
I find it quite ironic that you accuse us – the journalists and contributors for this newspaper – of “exploiting” the killing of fellow journalist Jamal Khashoggi. It seems to me that the only person who is actually “exploiting” this brutal act is Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself. And he has done so with great intelligence, like a poker player biding his time before showing his cards. President Erdogan is, ironically, no great defender of journalists and caricaturists, preferring to see them behind bars rather than freely expressing themselves. Do I need to remind you how long Turkish cartoonist Musa Kart spent in jail for simply drawing a caricature of your president?
Nobody here needs to be lectured about journalism standards by the representative of a country which doesn’t respect them under its autocratic (but yes, elected) President Erdogan .
Stephff
