Turkey / Europe & Central Asia

Two media workers released from state custody, trial ongoing A Turkish court yesterday released Şirin Çoban and İlker İlkan, two employees of the shuttered Kurdish-language daily Azadiya Welat, from state custody during their first trial hearing, according to the online newspaper Gazete Karınca. The trial is ongoing.

Turkish court banned coverage of alleged police beating incident A local Turkish court yesterday moved to ban news coverage of a story about two policemen allegedly beating a woman on the street in the southern coastal city of Alanya, the online newspaper Diken reported.

Spain releases Turkish journalist arrested on Ankara’s request Spanish authorities yesterday released the leftist writer Hamza Yalçın, who they had arrested in August at the request of the Turkish government, according to the daily Evrensel.

New York, September 22, 2017–Syrian-American journalist Halla Barakat and her mother, Syrian opposition activist Orouba Barakat, were found dead yesterday in their Istanbul apartment, the Turkish news agency DHA reported today. Friends alerted the police when Halla Barakat, 23, did not show up for her reporting job at the Syrian opposition website Orient Net, according…

Istanbul officials cancel press freedom award ceremony Officials in Istanbul today canceled a press freedom awards ceremony, according to the anti-censorship platform Susma.

New York, September 15, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Turkish authorities to immediately release photojournalist Çağdaş Erdoğan, and drop the anti-state charges against him. An Istanbul court on September 13 formally charged Erdoğan with terrorism, according to the volunteer journalist collective 140journos.

Court orders four Cumhuriyet managers and journalists to remain in custody for trial A Turkish court remanded four members of the Cumhuriyet newspaper yesterday who are on trial for terrorism-related charges, according to reports from their employer and Reuters.

Columnist’s passport returned Turkish authorities on September 7 returned Aslı Erdoğan, a former advisory board member of the shuttered pro-Kurdish daily Özgür Gündem and a frequent columnist, her passport, according to the Hürriyet Daily News website, which cites Erdoğan’s lawyer.

Turkish authorities confiscate columnist’s passport Turkish police confiscated Aslı Erdoğan’s passport as the former advisory board member of the shuttered pro-Kurdish daily Özgür Gündem and frequent columnist was on her way to Germany to accept an award for her work, according to a report yesterday on the online news site sendka.org.

New decree used to shutter three pro-Kurdish outlets The Turkey government shuttered three more pro-Kurdish media outlets yesterday, using a new decree issued under the state of emergency that has been in place since the failed attempted coup last year, the daily Cumhuriyet reported. Decree 693 was used to shutter the Dihaber news agency, the…