Posts Tagged ‘Turkey’
September 8th, 2011
Two
Turkish investigative journalists have spent
six months in prison before they go to trial. Ahmet Sik and Nedim Sener were
arrested on 3 March for being involved with the alleged terrorist conspiracy known as “Ergenekon.” Turkish authorities jailed Sik for an unpublished draft copy of a book he had written which is said to contain revelations about the “Ergenekon” plot. Prosecutor Cihan Kansiz set a date for the trial of the 14 defendants, including Sik, Sener and nine other journalists last week. Many of the defendants work for Oda TV news website and were arrested between 18 February and 3
March.
August 25th, 2011
On 18 August, police in
Istanbul raided the office of newspaper Aydinlik, as well as Ulusal Kanal television station. Officials
detained five journalists following the raids, reportedly in connection to an ongoing investigation of
Ergenekon, a “secular ultra-nationalist group” for attempts to oust the adminstration of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Four of the journalists were released, but Turhan Özlü, executive editor of Ulusal Kanal, remains in custody.
July 27th, 2011
The Turkish-Armenian editor’s assassin has been imprisoned, but questions about wider plot remain. Kaya Genç reports
(more…)
June 30th, 2011
Istanbul police have
arrested 50 contributors to
Turkey’s largest user-generated dictionary. The “Sour Dictionary” (
Eksi Sozluk) site offers satirical definitions of a number of common words and has been running for around 12 years. The anonymous authors, who were identified through their IP addresses, have been charged with “insulting religion” following a complaint over a discussion about the prophet Muhammed. The site’s administrators have faced criticism for agreeing to hand over authors’ IP addresses to the police.
June 14th, 2011
Turkish police yesterday arrested 32 computer hackers who are suspected of links with the anti-government hacker collective,
Anonymous. Over the weekend
cyber attacks were launched on a number of government sites to protest against proposed net filtering legislation which is expected to be passed later this year. Police raided the homes of 12 homes in cities all over Turkey after software used by the hackers to protect their identities failed.
June 13th, 2011
Ahmet Altan, the editor of liberal daily paper Taraf has appeared in court after he was accused of “exceeding the limits of freedom of expression” by the country’s prime minister. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has been in power since 2003, filed
for defamation after Altan accused him of denying the rights of Kurds and for turning his back on his former progressive identity. The prime minister is demanding 50,000 Turkish Liras in compensation and has also filed a criminal complaint against Altan. The case continues.
April 6th, 2011
An Istanbul court has
ordered the seizure of all of investigative journalist Ahmet Sik’s work on his incomplete
book The Army of the Imam. His manuscript explores the connection between the police and the group headed by Turkish Imam Fethullah Gülen. Sik was close to finishing the work when he was
arrested in March. Gülen is now living in exile in the USA. It has been alleged that the book will appear online on 11 April.
April 6th, 2011
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe has published a
report revealing that there are currently 57 journalists
imprisoned in
Turkey. This is more than any other country. The figures in the report come from the findings of the Freedom for Journalists platform, which represents local and national media organisations in Turkey. The report also states that a further ten journalists are awaiting trial. The EU are planning a special
conference in Brussels next month to discuss freedom of expression in Turkey.
