Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of April 24
Erdoğan says response to “sleaze” of EU’s press-freedom criticism beneath his dignity “Providing an answer to this worthlessness and sleaze would not be very appropriate for the president of Turkey,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told reporters in Croatia yesterday, responding to EU Parliament President Martin Shulz’s criticisms of Turkey’s crackdown on the press, the…
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of April 17
Trial resumes for journalists facing multiple life sentences The trial of Can Dündar and Erdem Gül, editor and Ankara bureau chief, respectively, of Cumhuriyet newspaper resumed behind closed doors in Istanbul today. The court today denied prosecutors’ request to combine the case with another case targeting alleged supporters of exiled preacher Fethullah Gülen, whom the…
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of April 10
Merkel approves prosecution of German comic for insulting Erdoğan German Chancellor Angela Merkel today told reporters the German government would allow prosecutors to act on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s request that television satirist Jan Böhmermann be prosecuted for a profane poem about Erdoğan he read on the March 31 episode of his television program.
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of March 13
Prosecutors preparing charges against media owner, pro-government newspaper says Turkish prosecutors are preparing a case against media owner Aydın Doğan and his daughter, Hanzade Doğan Boyner, claiming they ran a fuel-smuggling ring, the pro-government daily newspaper Akşam said in a front-page story yesterday. Akşam said prosecutors were seeking a 23-year sentence against the businessman, whose…
Two Kurdish journalists jailed in southeast Turkey
Istanbul, January 12, 2016–Turkish authorities should immediately release two Kurdish journalists jailed in southeast Turkey since last week and drop all charges against them, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The arrests follow the detentions of at least three other journalists working for pro-Kurdish news outlets in December.
Turkish authorities block access to news websites
New York, July 28, 2015–Turkish authorities blocked access to at least eight news websites in Turkey on Saturday amid what the government called a counter-terrorism operation, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Turkish authorities to restore access to the websites so that Turkish citizens can access news of public interest.
Turkish courts release eight journalists in two days
New York, March 27, 2014–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release this week of at least eight imprisoned journalists in Turkey, but calls on Turkish authorities to scrap the charges against them and release all of the journalists jailed in the country.
In Turkey, journalist freed from prison pending trial
A court in the city of Adana released Özlem Ağuş, reporter for the pro-Kurdish Dicle News Agency (DİHA), from prison on February 25, 2013, pending a trial, DIHA reported. The journalist was imprisoned on March 6, 2012, on charges that included membership in the banned Union of Communities in Kurdistan, or KCK, which the government…