Turkey: “Free journalists” challenge courts

January 6th, 2012

The trial of several journalists accused of being involved in an alleged plot to overthrow the Turkish government had degraded the status of press freedom in the country, writes Ece Temelkuran

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Appeal against book confiscation order denied by Turkish court

March 31st, 2011

A Turkish court has denied an appeal of a court order for the confiscation of the unpublished book “İmamın Ordusu” or The Imams Army, written by politically outspoken (and arrested) journalist Ahmet Şık. The court claimed that the unpublished draft had been edited by Ergenekon, the alleged coup-plotting organization, and declared the manuscript to be an “illegal organizational document.” Last week the police were ordered to seize multiple copies of the document by the court. Anyone who has refused to hand over copies of the draft is to be charged with ”aiding and abetting a criminal organization.”

Turkish court refuses to release detained journalists

March 18th, 2011

A Turkish court rejected an application for the provisional release of reporters Ahmet Sik and Nedim Sener on Thursday. They were arrested on 3 March during raids relating to the alleged Ergenekon plot. They will now be imprisoned pending trial on the charge of belonging to a “terrorist organisation”.

Protesters in Istanbul demand journalists’ release

March 14th, 2011

Thousands of people gathered in the centre of Istanbul on Sunday to protest against the imprisonment of journalists Ahmet Sik and Nedim Sener. The reporters were detained as part of an official crackdown over the alleged Ergenekon plot.  The demonstration was organised by the Freedom for Journalists platform (GÖP) to highlight the abuse of press freedom in Turkey. They are also campaigning for changes to national laws, in particular the Turkish Criminal Law.

Turkish journalists jailed

March 8th, 2011

Two journalists, Nedem Sener and Ahmet Sik, were sentenced to prison on Sunday pending an investigation into allegations that the military attempted to overthrow the Turkish government in 2003. About 60 journalists are currently imprisoned and thousands face prosecution for their work, reported the Turkish Journalists’ Association. Meanwhile, there are other concerns about press freedom in Turkey; 600,000 bloggers cannot access their blogs, after Google’s blogging service, Blogspot, was blocked in the country, for example. The site was banned by a Turkish court after users showed football matches on their blogs. Digiturk, a satellite TV firm, has exclusive rights to broadcast the matches in Turkey and approached the courts when it became aware of the matches being shown on the blogs.

Turkish police raid journalists’ homes

March 3rd, 2011

Turkish police have detained 10 people, many of them journalists, in the latest crackdown on an alleged secularist network, which is accused of conspiring to overthrow the government. This follows February’s high profile raid on the Oda TV news portal. On Monday blog publishing service blogspot.com was banned inside Turkey.

Four detained in police raid at Turkish news portal

February 16th, 2011

Istanbul police raided leading independent news portal odatv.com and searched the homes of its administrators. Those detained were the neonationalist site’s owner, Soner Yalçin and administrators Baris Terkoglu, Baris Pehlivan and Ayhan Bozcurt. The raids were ordered by Zekeriya Öz, a prosecutor in Ergenekon investigation, on the grounds that the site was holding confidential documents. The ongoing Ergenekon inquiry focuses on elements of the “deep state” working to subvert the government. Yalçin has published a book which denounces the prosecutors in the Ergenekon probe, critics of the case have alleged that the government is using the investigation to silence dissidents.