Turkish journalist Sezgin Kartal arrested for alleged PKK membership
Istanbul, January 18, 2023 – Turkish authorities should immediately release journalist Sezgin Kartal and stop filing terrorism charges against members of the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. On January 10, police raided Kartal’s Istanbul home and took him into custody; on January 13, a local court ordered him to be held in…
CPJ calls on Turkish authorities to investigate airstrikes that killed Hawar News Agency reporter
Washington, D.C., November 22, 2022—Committee to Protect Journalists on Tuesday called on Turkish authorities to immediately conduct a full and transparent investigation into whether Hawar News Agency (ANHA) reporter Essam Abdullah and other civilians were targeted during Turkish airstrikes in northern Syria. Abdullah was killed and Mohammed Jarada, reporter of Sterk TV, was injured during…
Turkey to try 2 journalists for alleged membership in terrorist groups
Istanbul, August 31, 2020 – Turkish authorities should drop all charges against journalists Rawin Sterk and Selman Keleş, release Sterk from prison, and cease filing bogus terrorism charges against the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On September 2, the 34th Istanbul Court of Serious Crimes, in Çağlayan, is scheduled to begin proceedings…
Turkish court sentences documentary filmmakers to 4 and a half years
Istanbul, July 19, 2019–Documentary filmmakers Ertuğrul Mavioğlu and Çayan Demirel, directors of the 2015 documentary movie “Bakur” (“North”), about the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), were sentenced to four years and six months in prison yesterday for “making propaganda for a [terrorist] organization” by a court in the southeastern city of Batman, according to news…
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of April 16, 2018
Journalists in prison An Istanbul court on April 17 arraigned Adil Demirci, a Turkish-German dual national and reporter for the socialist Etkin News Agency (ETHA), on charges of “being a member of a [terrorist] organization” and “making propaganda for a [terrorist] organization,” according to the German news agency Deutsche Welle. In the same case, the…
![People relax near Golden Horn in Istanbul, Turkey on April 4, 2018. An Istanbul court convicted in a retrial Hasan Cemal, a veteran journalist and a columnist for the news website T24, on charges of "making propaganda for a [terrorist] organization," according to news reports. (Reuters/Osman Orsal)](https://cpj.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/RT-TurkeyIstanbul.jpg?w=750&h=480&crop=1)
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of April 2, 2018
Journalists sentenced An Istanbul court convicted in a retrial Hasan Cemal, a veteran journalist and a columnist for the news website T24, on charges of “making propaganda for a [terrorist] organization,” and issued a suspended sentence of 18 months and 22 days, according to an April 3 report from the daily Cumhuriyet.
Turkey frees 2 VICE News reporters but third remains in custody
New York, September 3, 2015–A Turkish court early today ordered the release of VICE News’ British journalists Jake Hanrahan and Philip Pendlebury, according to their outlet. A third journalist, Mohammed Ismael Rasool, an Iraqi who is based in Turkey, is still in custody and is being questioned by Turkish authorities, according to news reports. The…
Turkey should drop terrorism charges against detained VICE crew
Dear Prime Minister Davutoğlu: The Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent international press freedom organization, is writing to express its concern about recent charges leveled against two British journalists and a local fixer who were detained while reporting from the southeastern Turkish province of Diyarbakir.