New York, September 21, 2016--Russian authorities should credibly investigate threats against independent online journalist Aleksandr Sotnik and bring those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Sotnik yesterday announced that he had fled Russia following threats connected to his critical reporting on Kremlin policies.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, along with the Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders, today wrote a joint letter to Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Đukanović protesting the 11-month pretrial detention of freelance journalist Jovo Martinović, who has been accused of participating in a drug trafficking ring--an accusation he has denied and which the prosecution has failed to substantiate with evidence.
Taraf chief editor detained hours after release
Hours after his release from prison, the writer and journalist Ahmet Altan was detained again. Altan turned himself in late last night and was arrested after hearing that he was wanted by authorities, according to reports. According to a report in the daily, Hürriyet, the prosecution objected to Altan's release under judicial control and argued that as the founding chief editor of the daily, Taraf, the journalist was a part of the FETÖ/PDY organization. The court ordered the journalist to be detained again under accusations of "attempting to eliminate the government of the Republic of Turkey or to prevent it from its duties" and "being member of a [terrorist] organization." Despite some pro-government media reports on Altan being detained while on the run, other reports and accounts on social media said the journalist turned himself in. Both Altan brothers, Ahmet and Mehmet are at Silivri Prison in Istanbul, pending trial
CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova today testified before the Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats Subcommittee of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, at the hearing, "Turkey after the July Coup Attempt."
Eid holiday leaves detained writers in legal limbo, lawyers say
Veysel Ok and Ergin Cinmen, lawyers for Mehmet and Ahmet Altan, two prominent writers detained four days ago, yesterday made a joint statement saying that because of the Eid holiday they could not find the responsible prosecutor or a court in which to appeal their clients' detention.
They called the charges against the brothers - sending "subliminal messages" about the July 15 failed military coup in their writings before the fact - "unserious."
[September 13, 2016]
Police raid Kurdish magazine office
Police raided Istanbul office of the pro-Kurdish magazine Özgür Halk today, the pro-Kurdish Dicle News Agency (DİHA) reported. DİHA reported that the raid, which was in progress at the time of publication, was related to the magazine's feature commemorating August 15, the date the banned Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) took up arms against the state. Police in the Mediterranean city of İzmir raided the magazine's office there on September 5 and arrested magazine staffer Rabia Özkaya.
New York, September 3, 2016--Turkish authorities should cease preventing Dilek Dündar, wife of exiled Turkish journalist Can Dündar, from leaving the country, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Can Dündar told CPJ that security officers at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport this morning confiscated his wife's passport and prevented her from boarding a plane to Europe, where she was to visit him.
New York, September 1, 2016--The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Turkish authorities today to release Lindsey Snell, an American freelance journalist who has been detained since August 7 after traveling to Turkey from Syria, where she said she had been filming.
New York, August 30, 2016--The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned an attack late on August 28 on Mentor Shala, the director of Radio Television of Kosovo, or RTK, and calls on authorities to protect him in light of continuing threats to his life. A radical activist group claimed responsibility for the attack, in which an explosive device detonated in the backyard of Shala's home in the Pristina suburb of Matican, according to news reports. Shala and his family were all inside the house when the attack occurred, Agence France-Presse reported, but no one was injured.
New York, August 30, 2016 -- Turkish prosecutors should cancel orders for the detention of 35 journalists, and authorities should unconditionally release all journalists already jailed, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Police today detained at least nine of the journalists on the list, according to press reports.
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