People on a ferry travel across the Bosphorus as the sun sets over the old city in Istanbul, Turkey on July 14, 2018. The Turkish government continues to crackdown on the press over two years after a failed coup attempt, according to reports. (Reuters/Murad Sezer)
People on a ferry travel across the Bosphorus as the sun sets over the old city in Istanbul, Turkey on July 14, 2018. The Turkish government continues to crackdown on the press over two years after a failed coup attempt, according to reports. (Reuters/Murad Sezer)

Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of July 23, 2018

Journalist arraigned

An Istanbul court on July 19 arraigned Mustafa Gökkılıç, a former reporter for the now-closed liberal daily Radikal, on charges of having ties to the Gülen movement, which the government considers a terrorist organization, according to the state news agency Anatolia.

According to the agency, Gökkılıç was arraigned with several former police directors and officers suspected of plotting against the National Intelligence Agency (MİT) in 2012.

Journalists released from custody

An Istanbul court on July 17 released from prison Havva Cuştan, a reporter for the socialist Etkin News Agency (ETHA), her employer reported.

Cuştan is still on trial alongside ETHA editor İsminaz Temel, who is still in government detention; their next hearing is scheduled for November 29, 2018, according to the report.

Both journalists are charged with “being member of a [terrorist] organisation” and “making propaganda for a [terrorist] organization” and were detained in October 2017, their employer reported at the time.

A court in the western city of Denizli on July 26 released from prison Gökhan Öner, a journalist for the shuttered pro-Kurdish Dicle News Agency (DİHA), and placed him under probation, the newspaper Gazete Karınca reported. His trial is ongoing, according to the paper.

Öner was arraigned in May on charges of “being a member of a [terrorist] organization” in relation to his work for DİHA, according to a May 5 report from Gazete Karınca. According to this report, authorities detained the journalist on April 28.