Vice has decided to shut down their digital media platforms to create awareness about one of their journalists, Mohammed Ismael Rasool, who is being held captive in Turkey.
Since late August, the Turkish authorities have held Rasool after a court charged him and two of his colleagues, Jake Hanrahan and Philip Pendlebury, with helping ISIS. The three journalists had been reporting on the conflicts at the border between Syrian and Turkey.
“Please help us focus attention on Rasool’s case, by sharing the hashtag on social media of #FreeRasool, and keeping pressure on the Turkish authorities to free him immediately,” Shane Smith Vice CEO asked in a press release.
Hanrahan and Pendlebury were released almost immediately and returned home safely. Rasool, on the other hand, is still being held in custody going on his third month in a prison cell. Rasool and his colleagues all strongly deny the accusations of helping ISIS.
Vice blacked out their social media and news platforms for two hours from 10am-12pm. During the two hours, their homepage featured a video calling for the release of their colleague with a direction to the website www.change.org, where there is a petition addressed to the Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“This is why we must all come together on Rasool’s behalf, challenging the Turkish government to do the right thing, which is to drop all charges against Rasool and release him immediately,” said Joel Simon, executive director of the committee to protect journalists.
Rasool, 25, served as a ‘fixer’, according to Mashable, where his ethnicity, Kurdish and Iraqi, played a big part in his staying safe in a dangerous area. He helped his colleagues by insuring their safety while traveling, reporting and other tasks, his background being a helpful factor in the documentation of the situation between Syria and Turkey.
Image via Youtube/VICE News, resized
