Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of September 10, 2018
Turkey detains Austrian writer Austrian citizen Max Zirngast, a contributor to several magazines and a student of political science, according to the OSCE, was detained by anti-terrorism police in Ankara, Turkey’s capital, on September 11, Deutsche Welle reported. Deutsche Welle quoted a tweet of German magazine re:volt–one of his employers–as saying that Zirngast was taken…
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of September 3, 2018
Journalists in court The prosecutor in the trial of imprisoned journalist Nazlı Ilıcak, who is charged with “revealing information regarding state security that is supposed to be secret for espionage proposes,” asked the 26th Istanbul Court of Serious Crimes for a life sentence, the daily Evrensel reported on September 6. Ilıcak attended the hearing via…
CPJ Insider: September 2018 edition
The Boston Globe receives threats after its call for defending a free press In August, The Boston Globe invited newspapers from all over the country to stand up for journalists and the media with editorials. Hundreds of news organizations participated in the initiative, for which CPJ provided a backgrounder on press freedom in the U.S.…
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of August 27, 2018
Police assault reporters in Istanbul Turkish police violently attacked several reporters trying to cover a weekly silent protest, known as the Saturday Mothers, in Istanbul’s Galatasaray Square on August 25, the New York Times reported. The reporters, alongside activists participating in the protest, were attacked by the police during the 700th vigil for those who…
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of August 13, 2018
Capital Markets Board issues warning on coverage of financial markets The Turkish Capital Markets Board (SPK) said in a statement that Article 107 of the Law no. 6362 on “market fraud” will be used against those who “spread fabricated, false and fallacious news about the economy,” independent news website Bianet reported on August 13. The…
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of August 6, 2018
Journalist arrested Authorities in the southeastern city of Mardin on August 8 took Uğur Akgül, a former reporter for the shuttered pro-Kurdish Dicle News Agency (DİHA), into custody to serve his prison sentence of two years and six months after a court rejected his appeal, according to the pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya News Agency. The journalist was…
CPJ Safety Advisory: Covering 2018 Unite the Right rally and counter-protests in Washington, D.C.
Hundreds of protesters are expected to join a “white civil rights rally” in Washington, D.C., on August 11 and 12 to mark the one-year anniversary of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which became violent and resulted in the death of one woman. A coalition of local organizations is planning counter-protests in Washington…
CPJ Safety Advisory: Covering 2018 protests in Bangladesh
On July 29, two students were killed, and 12 others injured when a bus plowed into a passengers waiting at a stop in Dhaka. Since then, daily demonstrations that started in Dhaka have spread throughout Bangladesh. Thousands of students have demonstrated on the streets of Dhaka at major traffic intersections, causing congestion that has nearly…
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of July 30, 2018
Journalist threatened Hale Gönültaş, a reporter for the news website Gazete Duvar, received a death threat on July 30, three days after the publication of her feature on the Islamic State militant group selling Yezidi women as slaves, her employer reported. Gönültaş’s report stated that at least one Yezidi woman was sold in Ankara, Turkey’s…