Media workers released
An Istanbul court on December 8 ordered three employees from the advertisement department of the now shuttered daily Zaman–Hüseyin Belli, Onur Kutlu and İsmail Küçük–to be freed pending trial, the English-language news blog Turkish Minute reported. The three are part of a trial that started in September 2017 which, as CPJ previously documented, includes journalists and other personnel from the newspaper.
Journalist acquitted
Bekir Güneş, a reporter for the online newspaper Gazete Emek, tweeted on December 13 that he was acquitted of “making propaganda of a [terrorist] organization” during a trial at the eastern province of Van. Prosecutors had accused Güneş of “making propaganda” for the outlawed Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK).
New outlet investigated
The Diyarbakır Prosecutor’s Office is investigating 1HaberVar, a news platform started by journalists whose outlets the Turkish authorities shuttered after the failed attempted coup, on suspicion of “propaganda” for the PKK, according to the daily Evrensel and the outlet. According to the December 12 Evrensel report, the prosecutors claim that the outlet’s coverage of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic party (HDP), which has parliamentary representation, was evidence of it creating propaganda for the banned PKK.