The 16 Kurdish journalists who were arrested on 8 June in Diyarbakır (Amed) have been awarded the 2022 Press Freedom Prize, given out by the Journalists Association of Turkey, on Friday.

The journalists were remanded in custody preventing citizens’ right to receive information as the election period approaches, the Journalists Association of Turkey said.

The prize is to be shared between Abdurrahman Öncü, Aziz Oruç, Elif Üngür, İbrahim Koyuncu, Lezgin Akdeniz, Mazlum Doğan Güler, Mehmet Ali Ertaş, Mehmet Şahin, Neşe Toprak, Ömer Çelik, Ramazan Late, Remziye Temel, Safiye Alagaş, Serdar Altan, Suat Doğuhan and Zeynel Abidin Bulut, who accepted it in the name of all journalists who have been prevented from doing their jobs.

The journalists in question are 16 of the 21 media workers arrested on 8 June. All of the media workers remained in police custody for eight days, and the 16 were sent to prison following their testimony at a court hearing. Local and international journalists’ associations have condemned the arrests and called for their immediate release.

The Press Freedom Prize has been awarded to outstanding colleagues since 1989, to emphasise the importance of press freedom.