Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of May 29
Turkish journalists launch solidarity campaign for jailed colleagues The Free Journalists Association (ÖGC) on Thursday afternoon held a press conference in front of Istanbul’s Diyarbakır courthouse to announce a new campaign to show solidarity with their jailed peers. ÖGC co-chairs Nevin Erdemir and Hakkı Boltan read aloud a list of 46 detained journalists whose trials…
Azerbaijani reporter Khadija Ismayilova ordered released on suspended sentence
New York, May 25, 2016 — The Committee to Protect Journalists is relieved at the Azerbaijani Supreme Court’s decision today to free investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova, who had been imprisoned on trumped-up charges since December 2014. The court converted Ismayilova’s jail term into a three-and-a half-year suspended term, Reuters reported.
Global Magnitsky Act could be powerful weapon against impunity in journalist murders
Last week, the proposed Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act emerged from the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee with approval. The bill was passed by the Senate last year. If passed by the full House of Representatives and signed into law by the president, it has the potential to offer partial redress to one of…
Kazakhstan court sentences journalist to jail over reports on bank
New York, May 23, 2016–A Kazakhstan court today convicted and sentenced Guzyal Baydalinova, the editor of the independent news website Nakanune, to a year and a half in prison for deliberately distributing false information, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the verdict and calls for Baydalinova’s immediate release.
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of May 22
Prison sentences for newspaper editors Istanbul’s 13th Court for Serious Crimes sentenced Eren Keskin and Reyhan Çapan, former editor and news editor, respectively, of the pro-Kurdish daily newspaper Özgür Gündem, to three years and nine months in prison each on charges of spreading terrorist propaganda, the newspaper reported today. Both are free, pending appeal. In…
Turkish High Court denies journalist’s petition for release from pretrial detention
Istanbul, May 18, 2016–The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned a decision made Tuesday by Turkey’s Constitutional Court to reject a petition for release by journalist Mehmet Baransu, who has been held in pretrial detention since March 2015 on charges of obtaining classified documents.
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of May 15
Veteran columnist pleads ‘not guilty’ to charges of insulting Erdoğan Veteran journalist Hasan Cemal, a columnist for the news website T24 and a founder of the news website P24, today pleaded not guilty to charges of insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at Istanbul’s 12th Criminal Court of First Instance, T24 reported.
UN review of Hungary shows country ‘treats human rights as a public enemy’
On May 9, a stern review of Hungary’s conduct in human rights issues and press freedom was released at the United Nations Human Rights Council. The report, drafted by the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, listed concerns from U.N. member states about the controversial policies of Viktor Orbán’s government on asylum seekers and…