Imagine yourself as an honest journalist, who sincerely works to report the truth. You are told to cover some areas with mounting tension, which involves a fairly large number of so called ‘mature’ countries. You work very hard to report only the truth, but as you know, truth is indigestible for some. You come up with a report that someone is helping terrorists, which that ‘someone’ doesn’t like. You know there is a threat looming over you, but still you dare to speak the truth. You express your fears in an interview, which some people aren’t happy with. Then, suddenly, some ‘Intelligence’ officials come up with a statement that you’ve been spying, which you clearly deny, as you know you’ve never done any such shit, and two days later, a ‘cement truck’ rams into your vehicle, and your game is over, just because you chose to speak the truth. Your killer is arrested, but they deny to reveal his identity-why?, because he worked for that special ‘someone’.
This is what happened with Serena Shim, an American journalist who worked for Iran’s state owned Press TV. She was reporting on the siege involving ISIS in Kobani at Syria’s border. She was returning her hotel in the city of Suruç when her car crashed into a ‘heavy vehicle’. The Daily Mail reports the car collided with a cement truck.
Just two days before her death, she had detailed her fears of being arrested, and claimed that Turkish intelligence had threatened her after her reports suggested ISIS militants were being smuggled back and forth over the Syrian border in the back of NGO aid vehicles. Her team was one of the first people to give the story of Takfiri militants going into Syria through the Turkish border.
She was a passenger in a car that collided with a truck. But Press TV, an Iranian broadcaster, does not accept that it was an accident. Her death occurred the day after she broadcast an item – as shown in the clip above – in which she said the Turkish intelligence agency had threatened her and accused her of spying — The Guardian
She knew that Turkey had been reported as the largest prison for journalists, so she feared them a little bit, as she had dared to speak the truth, which was clearly against them. Turkish officials were not happy with her, as is evident from their statements, so they wished to kill her, kill the truth, and kill the idea of #Freedom. And not so surprisingly, she was killed a few days later, by those same ‘officials’.
In a two years of investigation also ‘THE Frontline’ reporter Vedat Xhymshiti, at his February 2014 article “Western Military Coup d’Etat against the FSA” reported that “Turkey had allowed its territory to be used by the westerns for the paramilitary logistics of the ‘putschists’, as the western ‘Islamic paramilitary’ forces agreed to fight Kurdish rebels fighting in the territories covered by the armed rebellion” — Vedat Xhymshiti
Also Newsweek Magazine, said on their latest November 7 2014 publication that “A former member of ISIS has revealed the extent to which the cooperation of the Turkish military allows the terrorist group, who now control large parts of Iraq and Syria, to travel through Turkish territory to reinforce fighters battling Kurdish forces.
This is what she said in an interview:-
Press TV anchor: “Turkish intelligence agencies has now accused one of our correspondents of being a spy. “Serena, are you a spy?”
Serena Shim: No, not at all. I’m very surprised at this accusation, I’ve even thought of actually approaching Turkish intelligence because I have nothing to hide and I’ve never done anything aside from my job and I’d like to make that apparent to them. However, I am a bit worried because as you know and as the viewers know that Turkey has been labeled by Reporters Without Borders as the largest prison for journalists, so I am a bit frightened about what they might use against me.
We were some of the first people on the ground, if not the first people to give that story of those Takfiri militants going in through the Turkish border from Bab al Hawa, Reyhanli border [crossing], being sent in.
I got images of them in World Food Organization trucks. It was very apparent that they were Takfiri militants by their beards and by the clothes that they wore and they were going in there with NGO trucks and I just find it very odd, they went to several local residents here and asked about me. The residents said ‘no, we know her, we have seen her before, we’ve seen her work, she’s not a spy’, and they were going through with the fact that yes I actually am and they told any people that if they see me to bring me or or give them a phone call. So I find it odd. I don’t see why they’re taking this action against me at this point, I think that it may be because of some of my previous stories that have aired because now in the area of Kobani, we haven’t been inside, we’ve been telling the story from the Turkish side of the border.
There are other international news agencies there as well. I don’t know how they tell their stories or how accurate their stories are, and if that is why they have pinpointed me in this put-together incident. Oh, but I have spoken to a lawyer because if they do take me in, I do want to be ready and I want to be able to see where we can take this case legally. I think that it’s definitely about the reporting from Syria and part ic from the city of Hattay, not necessarily from the city of Kobani, it’s obvious moreso what’s happening there. The other reports that I had done were about at the time, the so called Free Syrian Army going in, and catching these Takfiri militants and getting the passport stamps and getting firsthand information that they were actually inside while Turkey was still hiding them about.
I think this has a lot to do with it and I think they want to know why I’m back. Another thing that they said is that I’m spying and I’m working with the Turkish opposition… but it’s only logical that I would speak with the Turkish opposition just the same way that I would speak with other parties… because that’s my job. So obviously there’s some fear there. I kinda wonder what’s happening. The situation in Kobani now… I’ve been hearing… there’s going to be more training camps… to send into Syria…
I wonder if they think that I’m going to focus on a different area and that I’m using the umbrella of Kobani and I’m actually getting in here to do some kind of investigative journalism because I don’t see it just being specifically in that area and it gives me the feeling that something is boiling and something is brewing that they think I’m here to catch.
“And Serena if you could just venture an opinion on what may happen next because you’re going to continue reporting on the ground as far as Kobani is concerned and of course you’ve been reporting as transparently as possible and it seems that the Turkish government isn’t very happy with that.”
… I would assume that they’re going to take me in for questioning my the next hope is that my lawyer is good enough to get me off as soon as possible. “do you think that this campaign by Turkish intelligence against you is also a warning for other journalists reporting on the ground over what and how they might report” I definitely do. I’ve been reporting about that for a year or so previously…
… it’s known, that Turkey has this clampdown on journalists. I’ve been stopped by them before, but not necessarily to this level, just by police basically, no different than any other country.
… but for the intelligence to actually look for me, that’s rather odd, so I think that they’re trying to get the word out to journalists to be careful so much as to what they say.” ….
We just need to think about what’s happening all around us – one day an aid worker is killed, and then a chain of killing Journalists starts, which, unfortunately, hasn’t yet stopped. For how long will the Governments continue to suppress the truth, and crack down on people whom they’re not happy with, just because they’re honest, just because they speak the truth. The arrests of three Al-Jazeera journalists in Egypt, who are yet to be released, the attack on a famous Pakistani journalist, and the firing by a Police officer on a Kashmiri journalist in 2010, are just examples of the Governments’ hatred for truth, and their hatred for the idea of equality and freedom.
